Futures Pride
by Heaven's Chocolate
Summary: All Shirou wanted was to keep the damage that the Grail War was going to caused to a minimum. All Rin wanted was to win the War, to make her Tohsaka heritage proud. But plots beyond the Holy Grail War are occurring. And with Humanity's fate in a thin line, this two may have to rise to the occasion. If they can survive that is.
1. Prologue: Let it Start

Prologue: Let it start

* * *

The sound of crackling flames woke him up.

Lord El-Melloi II, Waver Velvet, opened his eyes. Bright and raging fire burned everywhere. Was he in hell? With the great amount of pain he was in, it wouldn't be a surprised. His body ached. A dry cough escaped his mouth, it tore through his throat, he slump forward, blood tickled down his dry lips. He righted himself, leaned against the broken column behind him, he gasped as pain soared up from his back. He almost blacked out, eyes closed as he tried to let the pain pass.

Haggard breaths escaped him, with burning lungs and a raw throat. Blurry eyes watch the flames that encircle him, trapping him in, burning the large lobby.

"G-G-God…t-this is bad…" He said with difficulty. Burnt injuries rack his body. His favorite clothing was a mess, torn and burnt. He clenched his right hand, a hiss slipped through his teeth as his finger had dug into tender burn flesh. He raised his right arm carefully, the effort proved troublesome. He looked at his hand and saw the injuries, he let the limb drop onto his lap.

He was alive. He had somehow survived. A soft snort escaped him, already he regretted having survived. The pain he was in was the worst he had ever experienced. He knew he couldn't move. His legs muscles were far to injured to allow movement. More importantly, he had used the last of his energy to make it to this spot, where he had collapsed. Moments before he had slid down against the column, he had thought that he would die there, along with the rest.

Tired eyes survey the burning lobby, he looked pass the flames. Bodies, numbered by the dozens filled the floor.

Bodies burnt from the raging fire.

Bodies crushed under fallen rubble.

Bodies slashed with their pieces scattered.

Bodies smashed leaving nothing but a stained.

Bodies mauled by savaged familiars.

This was the fate that the members of the Clock Tower, home of the Mage Association had suffered.

The Clock Tower had been attacked. He did not know how long ago it had happened, or was it better to say that he did not care for the time for when it had occurred? He only remembered that it had happened late at night.

He _was_ aware to how the attacked had happened.

There were traitorous magi among their ranks. Agents that worked with the enemy of the Association, the Boundary Fields that should've alerted the Association of any attack, it had been undermine by these traitors. This act had allowed for their enemy to strike at the Clock Tower with critical precision.

Men and women had poured into the tower, magi with connection to the Association, to the lesser magus families, or freelancers.

Their numbers had surprised them.

Their strength had staggered them.

Their ferocity was like that of a raging hurricane.

He had been on his office, unaware that the attack had started. It was when a magus crashed into his office, a young or old, student or professor, commoner or noble, at that moment it did not matter as he was scorched.

He had been quite startled.

The cause of death for this person had been a woman. She wore tight suit, a Mystic Code, white and black, two black belts strapped on her chest. A rather impressive and well-made suit, its purposed was clear to be meant for battle. Yet compare to the rest of the gear, it was like comparing heaven and earth.

A white hooded and elegant cape, it was made with the finest fabrics, it reached down to the waist, and on the collar were two blue crosses with strings tie in a knot. It would've been obvious to anyone, that these fabrics held power, a mystery that had been lost to the modern times.

The woman also wore armor gauntlets and greaves. Both were black, trimmed with golden décor, green circular crystals set on the armor. Great magical energy swirled from these green bits. It allowed them to perform great feats that even exceeded what a magus was capable of.

Yes, it was quite obvious that these were the creation of a Servant.

It made sense after Waver thought about, the Fifth Holy Grail War was about to begin. If the reports were to be believed, only one more Servant had been yet to be summon.

His keen eyes had analyzed these powerful constructs and could tell that something was off. But he didn't pay mind to it for long, he ran, he evaded. A miracle had occurred and he had managed to escaped his office, injured, bloodied, limping. Fire then had burst, it had consumed everything on its path, burned him, killed many. Then there was his collapse.

Another cough tore through his throat, it left him without air. More coughs tore through him. His coughs seized, his chest heaved, blood poured out of his mouth. He may had have survived, but it wouldn't be enough.

He was going to die.

His opened wounds would kill him, as blood poured out of him.

Or maybe he would die by burning, the flames kept on raging, it would only be a matter of time before the fire reached him.

Or maybe he would die by suffocation, there 'was' smoke, it had been nothing short of a miracle that he could even breath.

"Ah…j-j-just let the r-roof fall…a quick death…a quick death…" He croaked out, eyes closed, letting the mind wander. The roof could fall or the column behind him could crush him. In the end he would be happy just to get this over with.

He wasn't suicidal. In fact, he had enjoyed living. He had done a great of many things, met many type of people and he had enjoyed his time has a professor. It wasn't all perfect, nothing ever was, but he had enjoyed it. He had simply given up. He's body had reached its limit and he was fine with no pushing further.

Not that he would. If there was one thing that Waver Velvet hated was exercise and him dying because he pushed a little too much? Death by flames had seemed preferable.

So he closed his eyes, cleared his mind. He prepared to go into his own little world, to ignore everything around him. If tried hard enough, he could've died without noticing, it was grim, but he was a realist.

A soft snort escaped him.

"You're still alive?" A woman's voice asked, she sounded surprise, yet there was a hint of relief clear on her voice. Waver eyes opened, startled at the sudden voice. How long ago was since he heard the voice of another person? Seconds, minutes, hours?

The sound flames was the only thing that had occupied his hearing, its burning heat as a constant reminder of the impending doom, the pain in his body as proof that he was indeed alive. But to hear another's person voice was almost comforting, no matter how irritated he could get by he's students constant babble's, being so close to death made him sentimental.

Still he found some odd sense of comfort that he would not die alone, even if it meant dying in front of an enemy.

Unfocused eyes focus on the woman, her body shadowed by the flames behind her, a tight suit, the same Mystic Code that the other attackers wore but with different colors, orange, white and black, an armor gauntlet on her left arm, the magical white cape, with half her face obscured by the capes hood.

'Different colors huh? This woman must be the leader or maybe someone of importance.' Waver thought, his mind analyzed the person in front of him, his unfocused eyes focused as the woman moved towards him. Sour sarcasms rose up from his throat. "S-Sorry to disappoint…"

The woman stopped walking in front of him, looked down at him, she smiled at his sarcasm.

"Disappointed you say? No, no, you got it all wrong Lord El-Melloi II. What I feel at the sight of you here and now is not disappointment, but utmost happiness." The woman said, her voiced colored with sincerity, relieved and happiness were clear in her words. Her smiled turned bitter. "I have to wonder to just how many people had to die here tonight…from young adults with inspiration for greatness, to older ones with just wishing to see the fruits of their labor…it's quite tragic is it not? To end someone's **Dreams** and **Hopes** for the future…but you being alive will make all, of this, worth it."

The woman's words were filled with regret, a manic desperation, a need for justification.

Lord El-Melloi II looked at her with scrutinizing eyes, he did not move, just continued his stared toward the woman. His lips parted.

"Y-Y-You are…insane…"

The woman smiled at his words, a bitter and broken smiled, and she knelt beside him. His eyes followed her, eyes like hawks, shoulder tensed. She was so near that he saw her face features much more clearly, golden-brown eyes, copper color hair. The woman's lips parted, ready to say something, but stopped when the flames behind her died down.

"What a most inconvenience place to be. Being so near this fire and smoke will be quite detrimental. Your lungs will filled up with smoke, which in turn will cause your health to decline and make for the cause that your fighting for be ever that much more difficult. You have to remember that for magi, their breathing is quite important. Less you wish to fail with your spells."

A man's voice rambled, as he explained facts that were obvious to magi. Yet each word carried their own wisdom, advice that should not be ignored, no matter how obvious the fact. Waver could not see the man who spoke, but he could feel his presence, even in his injured state. It was more than obvious what the man was, a being that held power that only lived in their imagination, the ultimate familiar.

The Servant had arrived.

The woman looked back, as her face had changed from bitter and broken to one full of genuine happiness. She stood up, jumped and hugged him. The Servant stumbled backward a little, his robed arms wrapped around the woman's body awkwardly.

'So she's the Master then.' Waver thought, the Servant was obscured by the woman, but he could tell that his robes were similar to the ones that the attackers cape. He eyed the spectacle before him, the sight made him frown in disgust, the show of affection on the lobby filled with corpses made quite for a dissonance scene.

"You're right, you're always right." The woman said, her tone laced with affection, her tightening her hug. "It's been a while since I last saw you. I was worry you wouldn't come."

Those words froze Waver's mind. _'A while'_ , that didn't make sense. A Servant, the ultimate familiar that could be summoned in the event of a new Holy Grail War, a constant companion toward their Master. A Servant would've never allowed for a Master to risk their lives, especially after such a massive attack.

"It was more than obvious that I would come. I may not look like it, but I am a man of my word. I did tell you I would see things until the end. And I do intend to keep my word, if not for you, then at the very least for _her_." The Servant said calmly, his voice held tenderness, as he put a hand on the woman's shoulder reassuringly.

"Yes, I should've not doubted you for even a second. But there are exceptions correct?" The woman's voiced held the same amount of tenderness that the Servant had demonstrated.

"Correct, 'Director'." The Servant said with a hint of a smile on his voice, his voice then turned serious. "The Fifth Holy Grail will begin very shortly and thus your plans, determination and devotion to the cause will be tested. But like I told you earlier, I will not fight **_her_**. Do not presume to pressure me into going into combat against her. Other than that, I shall stand by you. Until we've reached the end of this journey, you will have me as your ally."

The woman, the 'Director', sighed at the words, not out of frustration or disappointment, but one filled with relieved. She turned toward Waver, her relieved smiled turned sad.

Waver's lips twitched in annoyance at that.

"…he's one of the Seven Pillars. Please prepare _it_. I want to finish things here quickly." The Director's voiced was firm, a clear command, an order for her Servant. The Servant moved, he put his hands up in front, as a blue magical circle appeared on them. Waver shifted, caution blared on his head.

The Director walked towards Waver, knelt in front of him, cupped his face with her hands. She gave him a look of pity.

"Everything is going along well. If thing keep going like this, then no more have to die pointlessly. With our goals accomplish, we can stop 'it' from and we can save humanity from their fate." The woman said those words in a wishful manner, her hands tightened on his cheeks, she sighed. A light appeared behind her, a golden light, brighter than what any flames could accomplished. "You have been chosen, Lord El-Melloi II. Rejoice, as thanks to you…humanity shall accomplished and surpassed fate thanks to you and the others efforts. Humanities **Dreams** and **Hopes** shall become a reality."

The woman's words held conviction, a belief that was fanatical, desperation for the success of their objective.

The Director let go of his face, she stepped back, moved away. The bright light, the Servant stepped forward with the lights on his hands, it blinded him. There was nothing but silence, Waver looked at the light, his eyes barely made a figure inside the light, a shadow of a cup.

The Servant shoved the light into his chest.

It was then, that Waver Velvet, knew no more.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

 **Here you go, a prologue for a new story. Had this idea for quite a while now and was having a bit of trouble implemented it out in written form. I do hope it got out well and that you enjoy it.**

 **Please leave a review once you finished. I would love to hear what you think about this.**

 **Until next time.**


	2. Deadly Enemy Sparks

Fifth Holy Grail War, Day Four.

"Goodbye. We'll be enemies next time we meet, so be prepare."

Those were the words utter by the Master of Archer, Rin Tohsaka, towards the Master of Saber, Shirou Emiya, both participants for the Fifth Holy Grail War. The words were simple, its message clear, easy to understand. The young woman didn't give time for the young man in the room to react, as she walked out of the room, into the hall and went on her way.

She really hoped that Shirou would understand, that he learned from her advice, the mess he had been thrown into would kill him if he did not shape up. He was far too naïve, to dumb, he didn't take care of himself from what she had seen last night. If he continued at the rate he was in, she would have to step in.

 _'You don't deserve to die Shirou. Even for being a magus, you really don't need to die in this war.'_

Not that she cared about him dying or anything really. It just would just quite unfortunate for a person like him to die, even if it were his own fault.

Her school uniform fluttered, each step brought her closer toward the house front door, she got curious as to where Saber was. She had actually thought that the Servant would've make sure to see her out, to make sure she hadn't put on some trap, leave off a warning, or anything at all. It seemed like Saber was much more trusting that she had thought.

 _'Geez, those two are a match made in heaven if that's the case.'_ Rin though, amusement had filled her, thought she felt somewhat flatter at being trusted this much by a Heroic Spirit.

Her right hand reached for the entrance door, she looked back at the hall behind her, a sigh escaped her lips, as she opened the door and left the Emiya Residence. Light filtered in her eyes, the sun shone from up above, cool air breezed by her. She walked forward, her feet carried her toward the outside street, she stopped in the middle of the road after a couple of steps. The wind had picked up.

She looked toward her right, a neutral expression on her face, as she waited. A flickered, it had occurred fast, less than a second, but it had occurred. In that instance, a man in red had appeared and just as quickly disappeared. Her Servant, Archer was by her side, she nodded in satisfaction, happy that her Servant had understood her silent command.

With that she walked down the road, ready to commence her long walk back home.

"That was a wise decision, Rin." A disembodied voice complimented, the tone sounded pleased. "That _boy_ would have slowed us down had you made an alliance with him. There is no need to be burden by a third rate Master like him."

The voice of her Servant, Archer, echoed through the winds. Rin shifted her eyes toward the voice, she hummed in response.

"Hm. Well you're right about Emiya-kun being an amateur." The girl agreed, her voice was distracted, yet her steps remained steady. She stopped, the sound of a car that passed by snapped her awake, she shook her head. She looked to where Archer was. "Still, even for an amateur he's got the strongest card out of this war. Saber managed to take on that Berserker head on, even with that light body hers…geez she's incredibly powerful."

"Humph. That's an accurate assessment to make. The power she wields is indeed terrifying. To be capable to take such blows from that mad warrior with such finesse and skill speaks highly of just how great of a Heroic Spirit she is. Even I wouldn't have been able to perform as well as Saber did." Archer agreed with her words, his tone calm, as he analyzed the battle from the night before. "Still, even has fearsome has Saber was, she would've been overwhelm by Berserker's attacked had it not been for our distractions. It was thanks to these distractions that let Saber avoid getting hit in some critical moments. Humph, it might as well have to do with the fact that Saber is handicapped."

Rin stopped walking, a surprised expression had blossom, and she turned to look to where Archer invisible form was.

"Handicapped?" She question, her tone confused. It was a moment later that her expression changed into one of realization. Archer chuckled at that.

"Hm. Very good Master, you're pretty good in the up take." Archer's voice complimented. "But yes, Saber is very much handicapped thanks to her third rate Master. Had she been summoned properly and had a first class Master, she would most probably be the strongest Servant in this war."

Rin looked down, her thoughts were a dozen miles away, the information had left her dumbstruck.

"If I had summoned…"

"Hm. If someone like you had summoned Saber, even the botched summoning that you had performed would've been trivial." Archer's words cut deep, her Servant delivered the information without remorse. The words reminded her of her desired to have Saber.

A jealous sigh escaped her.

"…that's just unfair." Rin sulked, Archer's new bit of information ruined her mood. She walked towards her house, the mocking chuckles of Archer echoed through the wind.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

She had made it home. The walked had been long, tedious, annoying. The feeling of failure, of what-ifs or maybe's had accompanied her all the way. It was a feeling that would not go away, not after a couple of days. She had tried to distract herself, by arguing with her rude Servant, Archer had obviously enjoyed every moment.

"Archer." Rin called out, her voice was oddly calm, aware that the Servant was listening. "I'm going to make you pay, you know right?"

The disembodied chuckle from her Servant was the only response she had gotten. Rin sighed, walked toward her front door. She immediately froze, she became aware of a disturbance, a minor thing, yet because it existed she became aware of it. There was a bounded field placed on her home, one that did not belong there.

"Rin." The disembodied voice of Archer called, warning clear on his voice, tensed and ready. Rin hummed in response.

"Already, eh?" Rin said to herself. She was being attacked already? This was not something she had been expecting, though she should've. After all, this was a war. She relaxed her tensed muscle, set her face into a neutral expression, a calm breath passed through her lungs.

Rin analyzed the field put on her home. It was well made, probably already planned, ready to be use to take her out when she was alone. She could tell that its function was more to keep unwanted eyes and hears from noticing any disturbance from whatever battle that might blow up.

The Tohsaka heir sighed and shook her head.

Who was she to deny such invitation?

She stepped toward the entrance door, opened it, got in and then looked around. A specific spot by the end of the hall caught her attention.

An armor black and golden foot, the edges of a well-made white cape, it stuck out, whomever the intruder was made for a horrible infiltrator. Not that such thing would help, the immense amount of magical energy that could be felt around the house was telling.

"Archer." Rin said, a clear command, one that Archer understood. The Servant materialized in front of her, his steel back set straight, hands opened, ready to spawn his blades.

At that moment, hell broke loose.

From the hallway two enemies sprang into action, males, destroyed furniture flew up, tables, chairs, vases, pieces of the hallway wall. They moved like speeding bullets, white capes fluttered, their faces obscured by the hood, armored gauntlets tensed, ready and held their equipment for battle. The one in the left held wand, as big as a grown man, red in color, a light blue gem on the top, a bladed tip down below. The other one held a giant shield, cross in shape, dark blue and gray, magical runes inscribed on them.

From Rin's and Archer's left a door broke, kicked out from its hinges, splinters flew through the air, the door slid across the carpet floor. Another enemy came in, a female, a black and gold weapon held with both hand, cannon liked in appearance, eight barrels.

From their left the wall burst, Rin squinted her eyes, dust flew near her face. Another male enemy, charged into action, same wand as the one in the halls, with the bladed part pointed at them.

The roof from up above caved, two more enemies came, males, wielding dual straight swords.

An attack from all sides, strength that exceeded humans, speeds greater than even the fastest Olympic runner. Such offensive power would've killed even the strongest combative magus.

But the one who stood before such attack was a Servant, a being far above what any magus could ever hope to match.

The two enemies that came from the roof, their blades were swung simultaneously, four silver crescents slashes, all aim for the white hair Servant's head. It took Archer but an instance for a counterattack. Faster than the eye could track, both of the Servant's arm moved, twin swords, black and white, Kanshou and Bakuya.

Archer completely blew the enemy's offense away. Shattered silver metal spin in the air, the white caped enemies flew back toward the hall, their shield wielder colleague was right behind them, as he roused up the crossed shape armament and caught the blown away enemies.

The enemy beside the shield wielder pointed his wand.

"Brennen mit einem großen Feuer! Versengt!" The wand user chanted, as his words hit their culmination, a great stream of fire, it encompassed the entire hall before him, it flew toward Rin and Archer at great speeds. Rin barely had a second to gasp, Archer stepped back, his right arm grabbed her by her waist, he pulled her back and kicked opened the entrance door behind them…

And were met by a female enemy, her left gauntlet arm was raised up.

"Fly and escape! Tearing wind!" The woman grunted, her teeth bare, opened armor palm, and unleashed a gust of shredding winds toward Rin and Archer. The wind near Rin's face, eyes wide in shock, lips parted in fright, her mind froze. She was spun around, still in the arm of her Servant, she looked up.

"Ghk!" Archer grunted, as he shielded her with his back. The powerful magical winds shredded his armor, his feet slid, as he was pushed back into the Tohsaka house. The Servant stumble, they were back in the same spot, he looked up at the flames, a few feet away from him, he bended his knees, gritted his teeth in shock.

It should have been impossible, the wind spell should have 'not' affected him, the spell was nothing but low level in the spectrum of things. And his magic resistance was low, that he knew very well, but it still should've protected him from such spell. Yet, that wind attack felt as if it was 'C' rank. It was those gauntlets, of that he was sure, those gauntlets and armaments made these magus fight in a level beyond reason.

"Archer!" Rin shouted, voiced filled with strength, eyes full of determination. In her left hand was a jewel, Archer understood immediately and twisted his body to give her room for her plan. Rin's hand flickered and the jewel flew into the flames. "Gewicht, um zu Verdoppel ung!"

The jewel shattered inside the fire, its scatter bits formed a dome, and a great weight was added to the incoming attack. The fire flattened against the floor, leaving for a burnt hall, and charging enemies.

"Fire!" The woman from their left screamed, her weapon, the cannon, fired eight spikes, they were black with yellow borders, as long as a grown persons forearm. Archer with his hold firm on Rin, spun her once more out of harm's way, pushed her away. His teeth grinded as pain soared from his back, he looked down, eight spikes were embedded on him, smoked came from the black metal.

Rin had stumbled forward, her face had nearly hit the floor, she failed to regain her footing. The enemy who had busted down the wall, sprang forward, bladed wand ready to stabbed the girl. Rin's body twisted toward his direction, left hand pointed like a gun, a black reddish orb form on her forefinger.

"Gandr!" The Tohsaka heir chanted, as dozens of black orbs were shot, like a machine gun, toward her attacker. Each orb hit the enemy's upper body, but it did not halt his charged, the white cape dissipated the attacks, resistant to the curses. Rin fell down on the floor with her left hand up, shots still being fired at the enemy. Her face was in shock.

"What!?" Rin screamed, the enemy was upon her, bladed tip ready to be embedded on her sides.

The wand was knocked off the enemy's hand by a white sword, the man grunted in fright as Archer was upon him. One swift slash from his favored black blade, blood spurt, the enemy's body had been cut from shoulder to hip. Archer turned, grabbed his masters right forearm, ready to jump out of the house.

A small whisper caught his attention.

"CREPITUS." The words came from the man who had been slice up. The last bit of his life was used to light up a spell. His wears, the tight suit, white cape and armor gauntlets, yellow like circuits ran all over them.

And then he exploded.

The Tohsaka house rumbled, its entrance blown away, windows shattered. Pots, wall pictures, clocks, furniture's, anything that was not attached to the floor or walls fell. Smoke and fire had burst from the destroyed section of the house.

"…hmm. Ah…" Rin moaned, her eyes opened slightly, blinking rapidly. She was disoriented, her legs sprawled on the floor beneath her, the world spin round and round for her, another moan escaped her mouth. She felt strong arms tightened around her, she turned to look behind her, with unfocused she saw her Servant, vigilant to the threat behind them.

Archer's red cloth was slightly torn and cut, the right side of his face had a bruise, yet his eyes and postures remained ready.

She looked to where Archer was looking.

"Oh…those stupid jerks…those stupid jerks are going to pay…" Rin said, some bite was on her voice, as she tried to focus her arm leaned against her Servants chest. She winced as she cut her arm, she looked at the spikes he had been stabbed earlier on the battle.

Archer had protected her from the blast, he had used his own body as a shield and were both catapulted off the entrance hall toward the living room. There was a hole in the wall, made from the two being launched, smoke peered through.

Rin shook her head, hazy mind started to become less cloudy, her eyes became sharp and she bit her lip. Archer let her go and stood up, he turned around in a ready stance, eight spikes still embedded on his body. He turned his head slightly to look at her.

"Rin, are you okay?" The knight in red asked.

"…hrm, yeah, just a little piss that 'my' home is getting destroy!" Rin screamed, she got to her knees, a furious expression on her face, she glared at her Servant. "Just what the hell is going on Archer!? How the hell are these guys doing all of this!? You should've beaten them already!"

"Humph. Their weapons, armors, clothing…everything, well, mostly everything that this people have are creations of Servant. It's the only ideal explanation I can give you Rin." Archer answered, his head turned back to the hole on the wall, heavy footsteps could be heard. Archer tensed, ready for combat.

"A Servant…do you think this is Servant Caster? They're the only class I know that can create magical artifacts like the ones that those guys have." Rin analyzed, her mind went into deep thought, as she tried to figure things out.

"Quite true, I'm quite worry over having the Servant join in the fray." Archer's voice held a note of sarcasm by that point. "I'm afraid of that I won't be able to keep the house safe if that was the case."

"It doesn't have to reach that point Master of Archer." A male voiced informed through the smoke filled hole, the shield wielding enemy stepped out, his steps heavy. Alongside him came the wand user and the woman with the eight barrel cannon. "Just give up, do not make this any more difficult than what it already is."

Rin bristled at that, she gave a large glare at her attackers before she took a deep breath, calmed herself and forced a smile on her lips.

"You got a lot of nerve…after attacking me? My home!? You really think I'm going to give up!?" The Tohsaka heir voice got a little higher, anger clouded her once more.

"Hm. You people are quite arrogant. I will admit that you caught us off guard and for a simple magus, you are performing quite well. Even I have to admit that is incredible." Archer said, twin swords appeared in his hands. "But you have anger my Master and that is quite unforgivable, for that, I will bring all of you down."

"Negotiations have failed." The shield wielding enemy said, his voice gave away that this outcome did not surprise him. With his free hand he pointed his gauntlet at Archer, hand opened in a 'clawed' manner, parts of the armor shot up, green magical energy fired and the gauntlet was sent flying, it left his arm with a black and yellow sleeve, it sped at bullet speed towards the Servant in red.

Archer stood there, eyes observed the approaching gauntlet, his right wrist flickered, the white sword, Bakuya, hit the flying armor and deflected toward his left. The gauntlet let out a spark of electricity.

A storm of lighting exploded, completely covering Archer, who was unaffected by it, they became amplified by the eight spikes embedded on him and the electricity shot behind him.

"G-G-G-GUYAAAAAA!" The shrieked from Rin distracted Archer, he looked back, his Master was rigid, her hair stood electrified, a grimaced on her face. The Servant grew worry, frustrated, annoyed, he dispelled the black sword and quickly removed the spikes on his body.

"Fire!" The woman with the cannon weapon commanded, her weapon then fired eight more spikes toward Archer. The Servant stopped his actions, he had been in the process of removing the sixth spike and deflected all eight incoming spikes with the white blade.

Archer snorted, removed the last spikes on his body, and took a step forward. He was ready to end this, Rin had been hurt, he was greatly confused and annoyed over the enemy's equipment. He charged, a glass window broke behind him, he looked back.

A new enemy, female, the one who had used the wind spell, charged toward the electrocuted Rin, crossed the distance in less than a second, her right gauntlet arm reached out. It was only inches away from her head.

Archer knew what they were attempting. This was a tactic to throw him off his balance, the woman wasn't the main part of the plan, she was just a distraction. He would take her out and allow her comrades the chance to counterattack. It was simple, but it would be effective, their equipment was troublesome, they were creations from a Servant, so it was obvious.

He would just have to act faster.

"GRRA!" Archer growled, his left foot embedded on the floor, cracking it, it stopped his charge and push himself back to deliver a devastating right kick. The silver steel armor boot of Archer hit the enemy on the head, it shatter it, blood and bones came out, the wall behind him was painted red.

Archer brought his right leg forward, charge toward his enemies, called upon the black sword and slashed the woman with cannon. The shield wielder got in the way, the black blade bounced against the shield. The wand wielder saw an opportunity, he prepared an incantation, the Servant did not allow this to happened, he flicked his right wrist and threw the white blade toward the enemy's stomach.

The stabbed enemy let out a surprised squeal, going down on the floor, blood spilled over. Archer delivered another powerful swing toward the shield, the shield wielder slid back, the Servant delivered another swing, then another, the shield dented.

"Große mächtigen Push! Abstoßen!" A incantation was deliver in haste, fear clear on the enemies voice. The cross shape shield light up, Archer stopped his assault, stepped back, gained some distance. The enemy jumped forward, Archer defended, brought another Bakuya into his hands, crossed them. Swords and shield met.

A blue magical circle with symbols appeared, a shockwave was launched, Archer was blasted back. He went through the wall.

"Secure the 'Pillar'!" The shield wielder shouted, from the hole in wall, the one made by the explosion, the two enemies who wielded blades jumped in, white capes in tatters, cuts and blood on their bodies. One of them crossed the distance, grabbed Rin, she resisted, but it proved futile, the gauntlet arm held a tight grip on her. The enemy jumped with Rin on his arms.

A blue arrow was shot from the hole that Archer had been pushed into.

The shield wielding man stepped in its path, he was too slow, the arrow destroyed the right side of the cross shield and went for Rin's capturer. It hit the man on the back and went through, it left a bloody hole on the man's body. Rin fell on the floor with a grunt.

"Grab the Pil—Gggua!" The woman tried to shout, but twin blades pierced her chest, blood leaked out of her mouth, as she fell on the floor.

Archer charged in like a bullet, twin swords back in hands, the shield wielder placed his protection back in front.

"Große mächt—AAAAAAAAARGH!" His chant became irrelevant, Archer passed by his right side, slashed at his right thigh, cut deep into the bone, the Servant spun, and kicked the shield out of the enemy's hands. The enemy fell and Archer went for the other one.

The last standing enemy tried to grab Rin, desperate to get away, scared gasp escaped the enemy's mouth. He grabbed Rin by her forearm…

…and was awarded with a reinforced leg to the face.

The enemy stumbled backward and was knocked out by Archer, as he hit his head with the back of his sword. The enemy fell with a loud thud.

"Rin!" Archer called his voice full of worry. He approached his Master, the white sword disappeared, he offered a hand toward Rin, who was still in the floor. His Master shook her head, stood up by herself, with some difficulty and looked at him.

"I'm fine…a little peeved, but fine." Rin answered, her tone clipped, annoyed, angry, yes, most definitely angry. She moved toward the conscious enemy, who was writhing in pain, blood gushed out from his thigh.

Archer moved back for the enemy he had knocked out, knelt beside him, reached for his gauntlets and pulled. The armor would not butch.

"The armor acts like a second skin…?" Archer analyzed as his eyes narrow, he checked the armor, tanned hand passed over the black metal piece.

"A second skin?" Rin asked, curious, she stopped her march, her attention off the fallen enemy and looked at Archer.

"…Ha...haa..give it up…!" The conscious enemy moaned, pain clear on his voice, yet a manic grin could've been seen from his obscured hooded face.

"Are you still on about us giving up? Face it, you're already beaten." Rin said, arms crossed, her eyes narrowed. Archer from behind used his black sword, he server the unconscious enemy's limb ligaments, cutting off his ability to move.

"Ha, haha, ha!" The former user of the shield laughed, his voice hoarse, pain filled and manic. Archer walked over to Rin.

"It's no use Rin, he's in shock. They held incredible coordination and fought tremendously, but in the end they held no experience in battle. That's the best that you can expect from a proper Magus." Archer said, his words direct, his tone relaxed, yet his posture was still tense. Rin nodded, looked down at the still laughing enemy, walked over to him.

The enemy twisted his body to glare at Archer.

"Y-You're a fool! Counter Guardian!" The enemy shouted.

"What!?" Rin and Archer questioned loudly, simultaneously, in shock. Archer was left completely stupefied, his mind went blank, not understanding how his identity had been compromised.

"Ha! Y-Y-You believe yourself to be s-so high and mighty, huh!? Hahahaha! You two are nothing but fools! Mere pieces that are meant to be move by the Director!" The fallen enemy shouted, his voice manic, a crazed look on his face.

"The Director?" Rin questioned, her face crunched up in confusion, her eyes looked down in thought, then she looked back at his face. "Is this Director the Master!?"

"Ha…haa, I guess I have never given you eastern people much credit have I!? The Director is the one who shall inherit humanity! She will lead us to a new path! One filled with greatness! No more will magus have to squander around looking for mysteries that probably don't exist! She shall give us power! Unlimited power!"

"Hah! Unlimited power? Geez, for a guy who just fought a Servant, you're pretty gullible." Rin said, her arms crossed, eyebrows raised as she looked down at the manic enemy. "Whoever this leader of yours is, she got you hooked with your own delusions."

"Y-Y-You…! You damn bitch! My prestigious family will be revitalized thanks to her! She will bring back our might, she shall make my family reach a higher plane in magecraft! You are nothing but a tool! A ' _Pillar_ '! You are our ticket for power! Our **Dreams** and **Hopes**!" The enemy ranted, his voice grew in pitch, veins all around his face.

"…'Pillar'? What do you mean by that? What the heck is your plan?" Rin question, she went to kneel beside him, but was stop by Archer, who placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't get near him. Remember that they have Deadman's switch, a suicide spell. Whatever they might want with you doesn't necessarily mean that they need you alive." Archer explained, as he pulled her back.

"Ha…ha…ha…we do need her alive…" The enemy corrected, a grin on his face. "But you're too late."

Suddenly the entire was engulfed in blue. Archer and Rin looked around in surprised, Archer grabbed Rin, hefting her up with a single arm, his free hand calling forth Kanshou and jumped towards the windows.

"We were just a distraction…" The enemy said, his voice soft, as he died from blood loss. A happy smile was on his face, satisfied that he had served his Director.

Archer and Rin barely reached the windows, the entire house filled up with light, before everything around them shattered apart.

Master and Servant were stilled trapped inside.

And the world around them remained unaware of the events that had transpired.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

 **Here's another chapter for Futures Pride.**

 **I decided to start with the meat of things and show the devastating power of this 'mysterious' enemies. For those who already have figured it out and know, well congratulations.**

 **This enemy force identity will not be reveal until late, and for those worried that this might OC's don't worry this are characters from the Fate series. The Question is who? Right?**

 **Anyway the fate of Rin and Archer are mystery, how bad were they hurt? Is one of them no longer capable of going on? Find out next time!**

 **I'll Try to have schedule for this, but it'll be tricky with College and Work.**

 **Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **See you next time.**


	3. Crazy Train Part 1

The atmosphere around the dining table was peaceful.

Shirou Emiya dined in on the breakfast food served by Sakura Matou. Taiga Fujimura ate the food with gusto, a happy smile on her face, eyes closed in delight, body relaxed. Saber ate with an elegance and gracefulness that only she could exhibit, eyes focused on her food, chopsticks on her hand with not even a single bit of food wasted. Shirou brought the food toward his mouth, chewed on it and looked down when he noticed something.

"Hm? This is a bit thin. Did you change something, Sakura?" Shirou asked, his head tilted, with his chopsticks he played with the food on the bowl. Sakura looked up and gave a small smile.

"Yes. I thought Saber-san wouldn't be used to miso soup. So I didn't put too much miso in it." Sakura said, her voice light, she looked toward Saber when she said this. His Servant stopped eating, her green eyes focused on Saber and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Yes. I like this miso soup better than last night's. But please cook at your leisure since I am used to Japanese food. It will be for our mutual benefit." Saber said honestly, Sakura looked surprised at that.

"R-Really!? Whoa, you're using chopsticks…I'm surprised. You sure are multi-talented." Sakura complimented, as she stared at Saber with wide eyes.

"I am used to it…But to be honest, chopsticks are tiring. I do believe it is better than fork and spoon, though." Saber complained slightly, voice even, not giving much of a hint of her complaint. She went to put some sauce on her food. Taiga looked up from her food, chewed, swallowed and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Yeah. Fork and spoon over chopsticks. Oh, that's not what you put on it. You have to put soy sauce on that." Taiga advised, a happy smile on her face. Saber stopped what she was doing and nodded, accepting her mistake.

"…I see. Thank you for your advice." Saber said gracefully. Taiga nodded at that happily.

"No problem. I'll take dried seaweed as a reward. Give me seconds, Shirou." Taiga said with a catty smile, eyes closed, her glutton demanded more food. Shirou sighed at that.

"Here. Don't eat too much and fall asleep again." Shirou said, as he handed her the piece of food. Taiga greedily took it, salivating smile, eyes shining.

"Sensei? I think you should hold back if you're going to be participating in the morning practice…" Sakura said, her voice worried over Taiga's health. The woman waved her off easily.

"This is fine. I have to eat a lot to make it until lunch. And you're not one to talk, eating riceballs after the morning practice." Taiga teased.

"—! You knew about that, Sensei!?"

Breakfast went on like that, loud, cheerful, teasingly, happy. Taiga teased Shirou and Sakura, both got flustered, embarrassed, or angry at her perfect accuracy with her teasing. Saber remained calm, eating, spoke sparingly, but in good nature. The peaceful atmosphere made everyone relaxed incredibly.

"—over fifty victims were found earlier this morning, and they are undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital—." The news on the TV revealed some disturbing reports, the effect were immediate, as it shatter the peaceful feeling in the living room.

"…huh? A gas leak in Shinto again? Whoa, it's fifty people this time." Taiga said, surprised. She stopped eating, paid attention to the ensuing news with a serious expression.

"—another tragedy has been found early this morning in the foreigner's district in the Miyama Town, the Tohsaka residence has suffered a house breaking and probable kidnapping. Police officers are currently investigating and searching for missing resident, Tohsaka Rin—."

Everyone in the room froze at that.

"…Tohsaka-sempai…?" Sakura asked, shocked from what she had heard. All of them were just a shock, Taiga looked at the TV with an unusual serious look.

Shirou thought over what may had happened with Rin, his mind recreating a scene over the possible criminals, but he quickly discarded it. Rin was magus, a great one, he remembered her using magecraft to try and slow down Berserker, even if she had failed, it still was something beyond his scope of abilities. And if that wasn't enough, she was a Master, her Servant, Archer, would never let someone hurt his Master. So whoever did this, it wasn't a common criminal.

No, it was obvious to him. He turned to see Saber, she was watching the news with an intense expression. This was the actions of a Master.

"Hmm. Things are getting way to dangerous. Sakura-chan, you're coming with me to school and whenever you go home. I don't like the idea of you going out by yourself, okay?" Taiga said, her voice light, but there was a hint of firmness in it. She turned to Shirou. "You can't work in Shinto for a while. You have some money in reserve, so take a break during times like these. Keep the house lock and if something happens, give a call, okay?"

The sight of a serious and worry Taiga cemented just how serious things were. But he couldn't answer her, giving an empty answer was not his style. He knew what he would be doing in the night, it was about time that he started his role in the war.

That was his answer.

 **.**

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It was a little bit pass seven, but Shirou could've still made it to school without hurrying.

He scratched the back of his head, the feeling of guilt etched on him. Earlier on Taiga had left with Sakura in tow, just as promised, leaving Shirou with a warning about being careful. That left him to clean the dishes, dried them, make sure to keep the house lock, make it in time to school and alone with Saber.

Master and Servant had gotten into a small scuffle over their next actions and more so in Shirou's safety. Admittedly Saber had brought on some good points, but he had ended convincing her to let him leave to school alone. The sight of a worry Saber made him feel guilty, denying her this? Her duty to protect? It made him feel like trash. Still he had promised her that he would be careful, that much was the least he could do for her.

And, he looked at the Command Seals on his hand, he had been given strict instructions on the event that something may had happened, to use the mark on his hand.

"Gyaa—!" A female voice grunted.

"Dha—!" Shirou grunted, he hit someone, stumbled back on the walkway, shook his head and look up. He had ran into someone, a woman, down on the floor, right hand kept her upper body up, the other on her head, dressed in a white business blouse, belts on her chest, black skirt, hair color was copper, brown eyes. She looked to be in her twenties. "Hey, I'm sorry, let me help you miss."

Shirou walked towards her and offer his hand towards her, the woman without looking at him threw her left hand on his direction, as she checked her wears for any damage.

"Oh thank yo—D-D-Da—!" The woman started, a show of gratitude, but cut it short, as she looked at him in shock. Shirou tilted his head in confusion. The woman cough, laughed nervously, an awkward smile appeared on her face. "D-Damn, uh, I damn, uh, you know damn it I'm such a klutz."

"Not at all miss. It's my fault for not paying attention." Shirou said, he grasped her hand tightly, pulled back and got her to her feet. The woman stumbled, gained her balance and looked at him with a small smile.

"Your fault? Of course not! It's kind of mine for not paying attention to what's in front of me." The woman said with a small laugh.

"Well I kind of wasn't paying attention either." Shirou said, he looked off to the side and scratched the back of his head.

"Welp, guess it's both out faults eh?" The woman said, as she imitated he's exact mannerisms, Shirou did not notice this.

"Hm. Well, I'll be on my way miss." Shirou said as he stepped around the woman, his destination only a few minutes away, he walked away.

"See you later…" Shirou heard the woman say to him, her voice still awkward. A chill down his spine, he stopped.

"… _Shirou_ …"

"What?" Shirou asked, surprised at the woman knowing his name. He turned, to question the woman, but found her walking away. Shirou took a step forward, ready to pursue her, but hesitation took over him and he stopped. "Hm. Come on, snap out of it, there's no way that woman would know my name. And even if she knew, we probably met before. Yeah, that's right. I'm just stress over this war."

Shirou talked to himself, shook his head, stretched a bit, hit both his cheeks. Once he found himself in good shape, he continued toward his destination.

The woman from the other side of the walkway smile slightly at this, as she continued to walk toward her destination.

 **.**

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 **.**

It was lunchtime, the day for Shirou had been passing quite fast. He walked through the school hallway toward the student council room. The meeting with the woman form early in the morning forgotten and the weird feeling he got as he entered the school categorize as unimportant.

"Geez, I can't believe that someone would hurt Tohsaka-sempai!" A male student said, the group of boys nodded at his words.

"Whoever did this is gonna pay!" Another one roar, the group joined in agreement.

The entire school had been in uproar at the whole situation with Rin. When Shirou had arrived, the first thing he had been met with was news over Rin's supposes kidnapping. Many girls and boys who looked up to Rin where greatly distraught by the events, they gossip or made plans to track down whoever did this and make them pay. It kind of made him happy that people were worry for Rin, but it still made him worry over them crossing pass with a Master.

"—huh? Um, Ayako-chan is absent today. You don't think…" A girl said, her voice tremble slightly.

"Geez, what's up with this town!? Thousands of gas leaks and now students getting kidnapped left and right!?" Another girl complained, frustrated over the events.

"H-Hey Shinji-kun is missing too…! Did he get kidnapped too?" Another girl commented.

Shirou's lips curled down, eyes narrowed, hand tightened over his lunch. It was true, he hadn't seen Shinji in class today, could he had been another victim? Did he suffer the same thing that he did in that fateful night? Did Ayako suffer as well? He stopped in front of the student council rooms door, frustrated.

He sighed, opened the door, stepped in and looked at Issei Ryudou sitting there with a contemplative on his face. He walked forward, got to the table, placed his food on the table, sat down and looked at Issei.

"Hey Issei." Shirou greeted, his voice plain. Issei blinked, looked up, he looked surprise.

"Emiya…? Huh, sorry I did not greet you. I was lost in my thoughts." Issei apologized, shook his head, opened his lunch, but did not eat. Shirou tilted his head in wonder. Issei noticed the look, coughed into his right fist and gave Shirou a serious look. "It is thinking over Tohsaka's the supposed kidnapping."

"Hm. Yeah, Tohsaka's house was left in a really big mess. And there was a lot of blood on the floor from what I saw in the news." Shirou said, setting the chopsticks down, pulled back against his seat, crossed his arms, looked off to the side with a frown. Issei hummed at that.

"Yes it is quite unfortunate. I shall pray for her safety." Issei said, voice even, eyes closed.

"Huh? Really? I thought you disliked Tohsaka?" Shirou asked, Issei spluttered, eyes widened, leaned forward and looked at Shirou in shocked.

"W-W-What!? Of course I do not trust that fox or even remotely like her. But I do not wish ill intent on her! Please Emiya, do you really think so lowly of me?" Issei said, indignation clear on his voice. Shirou put up his hands in defense.

"Sorry. It's just that this is the first time I've ever heard you say something in a positive way about Tohsaka. It was kind of surprising." Shirou said, trying to amend his mistake. Issei took a deep breath and nodded.

"No, I do believe I as well must take blame. My distraught for that girl is something I have let take over me for a long time now." Issei said, calmed, eyes closed, right hand placed on the table. He looked at Shirou. "Still, that was a very harsh thing to say Emiya. Try not to be so blunt when you are talking to someone."

"Heh. Okay Issei, I'll try to listen to your advice." Shirou said with a nod, picked up his chopstick and continued eating. Issei sighed, appreciation clear on his face.

"Hmm, still…I am quite worry over the possibilities of other students being missing." Issei said after a moment, his tone distant, lost in thought. Shirou stopped eating, a frown on his face.

"Mitsuzuri and Shinji are missing today…but I know I saw at the very least Mitsuzuri yesterday in club's practices and Shinji didn't go yesterday to practices, but maybe he got sick or he got a new girlfriend." Shirou informed Issei, he gave the glass wearing student a serious look.

"Hmm, it is a very serious issue Emiya, but, you're no outsider, so I guess you can know." Issei said with a serious voice. "It happened last night. We got a contact from Mitsuzri's family saying that she had yet to come home from the archery club. When we contacted the students who actually went to the club, we found out it was Shinji that last talked to her."

"Hold on. So Shinji did go to the practice yesterday? But it was way too late. And everyone was leaving to go home." Shirou said, surprised colored his voice. Issei nodded at his words.

"Yes, it seems you were there as well. But this is after that. When a student returned to school to get something he forgot, he saw Shinji in front of the archery range. It seems that Mitsuzuri and Shinji were having a quarrel." Issei informed, he looked off to the side. Shirou caught the gesture.

"Issei, what's up? You're not telling me everything." Shirou leaned forward, pressuring Issei. The student council president groaned slightly, pursed his lips and gave Shirou a look.

"Shinji was not alone, a group of adults were with him. Men and women dressed in white and black clothing, they wore belts around their chest, a weird form a fashion, but still worrying. They seemed to have been pressuring Mitsuzuri, if I had to guess then they were pressuring Shinji as well."

Shirou blinked, the description that Issei gave reminded him of the woman he had stumble with earlier on the day. Could that woman be connected with all of this?

"But that's not what got me worry though." Issei continued, worry clear on his voice. Shirou looked at him worriedly.

"There's more?"

"Hmm, tell me Emiya. Have you seen Kuzuki-sensei anywhere today?" Issei asked, a direct question, face set straight, serious. Shirou stopped, his eyes wide, realizing who the other person who was missing was. "Yes, Emiya, Kuzuki-sensei is missing today as well…no it is more accurate to say that he has been missing since before yesterday."

"Wait, he has been missing since before yesterday? Hold on, how do you know that!?" Shirou asked in surprised, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape.

"Oh, no. I just realized I haven't told you about it. Kuzuki-Sensei is like a brother to me." Issei said easily. "Kuzuki-Sensei has been staying over at my place for about three years. He is a naive person, but he has a sincere heart. He is living under the same roof as me, and he is someone I can respect as a person. It is only natural for me to respect him as my older brother."

"Whoa, I wouldn't have thought that Kuzuki-sensei was so important to you." Shirou said, surprised by what he had heard.

"Yes that's not all either…those very people, the ones that were with Mitsuzuri and Shinji yesterday had come to the temple and forced Kuzuki-sen—Guh!" Issei words were abruptly, a gurgled escaped his mouth.

For Shirou, his eyesight blacked out for a moment, he abruptly stood up, shook his head, rubbed his eyes. His stomach crawled, sense were reversed, his body felt hot. The noise of a body collapsing against a metal table caught his attention, he looked, Issei was unconscious.

"W-What the…?" Shirou asked in panic, looking around.

A disorder had occurred. Everything around him was red, the walls, ceiling, floors, air, everything. Shirou took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, but he felt numbed, the thick air he had inhaled proved harmful. He took a step, feet's trembled in effort. His body felt weak, as if something was sapping away his strenght. He shook his head, took a moment to center himself, gritted his teeth.

He ran toward Issei, seats were knocked down, he reached his friend, placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him. He stopped as he saw his skin melt, like mud, sliding down Issei exposed skin. His eyes widened, his mind went into deep thought, as he tried to find a solution.

It was more than obvious to him that this was an attack made by a Master. Whoever did this was targeting the room specifically, the intention to take him down as quickly as possible clear. This Master obviously did not care about innocent lives getting hurt along the way.

Shirou grabbed Issei left arm, slung it around his shoulders and got up. He needed to get Issei away from here, take him to the infirmary as quick as possible and find the culprit. Shirou quickly remembered Issei's descriptions about the people that were with Shinji and Ayako, he gritted his teeth, he walked towards the exit, an unconscious Issei in his arms, heavy and dragging.

Meeting that woman didn't seem all that irrelevant anymore.

Shirou made it to the door, the only exit out of the student council room. He reached out, left hand neared the door knob, grabbed it, twisted it and opened. He looked down, checked his friend's condition and walked out of the room.

"Come on Issei, everything is going to—!" Shirou said, his words of reassurance were cut short. He had looked up, breath had hitched up, mouth dried, his hold tightened.

He had been wrong. He had assumed that the only place that had been attacked had been the council room, as his identity as a Master had been compromised, he would've been killed in there. He had thought that he had been underestimated, that all he had to do was get his friend out and toward safety, before he dealt with his enemy. But now he understood just how dangerous this war was.

Everything was red, the halls, the air and the sky outside. Shirou walked forward, Issei still around his shoulder, he went for the halls window, looked outside. A large red dome had encompassed the entire school.

"A boundary field…?" Shirou muttered, to himself, eyes fixated outside.

"Yep, it's pretty good eh?" A male voice asked, its tone was full of arrogance. The voice asked for approval, praised, congratulations over what had been done. Shirou turned his head right, slowly, to look at the source of the current disorder. "You know Emiya, you're doing better than I thought."

Casually, hands on hip, stood Shinji Matou, dressed in a tight white and black suit. Behind him stood three females and one male, dressed with the same white and black suit, but they had armor gauntlets and greaves, a white cloak with the hood pulled up, and a great multitude of weapons or equipment.

A woman had a big wand with a big jewel at the top, another woman and man held cross shape shields and the other woman held three spears like weapons, each the side of an adults torso, on her back.

They all exuded great magical power, their obscured faces made them look much more ominous, shadowed faces, lips set down on a frown. It made Shirou's skin crawled.

But he did not care about such thing now.

"This is your doing, Shinji?" Shirou asked, voice calm, eyes set hard. Shinji chuckled.

"That's right. This is my doing. I had some trouble getting the boundary field to go off in the past couple of days, but…" Shinji gestured back, to the four armored individuals. "I found some pretty good friends that could lend a hand. You know this field wasn't supposed to go off now? I mean normally it would take a couple of more days, but these guys here helped accelerate things."

"—I see." Shirou said plainly, he knelt down and set Issei down, not moving his eyes from Shinji or the other four. He stood up, moved away, his muscle tensed, his left hand throbbed. "Tell me something Shinji, are you a Master?"

"A master? Hahahahahahaha! Hey Rider, how about you make an appearance here!" Shinji ordered, his voice filled with arrogance. From behind Shirou, set of footsteps could've been heard, the sound of sparkling energy gathering as well.

Shirou looked back, three more of the armored individuals came in. A man and woman both had the spears like weapon, the other woman held no weapons, but had what looked like liquid metal by her feet, it twitched, opened its 'mouth' and showed dozens of sharp 'teeth'.

But they did not compare to the woman that materialized in front of them. Long purple hair, fluttered around the heavy hair, like snakes, tight black and purple cloth, it accentuated her body greatly.

Shirou paid that bit of information no mind. He instead focused on an important bit, the fact that the long-purple hair woman was a Servant, Rider.

"You see that now Emiya? That right there is my Servant, my prove that I'm a Master. So tell me does that answer your question?" Shinji said mockingly, Shirou stood firm, turned his head back to Shinji. The blue hair Master had a cocky grin on his face, his eyes sparkled in excitement over his power. Shirou gave him a flat look.

"Drop the boundary field."

Silence reigned on the school yard.

"…what?" Shinji asked, confused, his cocky smile dropped, eyes squinted, a glare. The others remained in their stoic pose.

"I said bring the boundary field down Shinji, or else I'll force you to do it." Shirou said plainly, his tone determined and strong, his posture rigid. Shinji glared hatefully.

"Y-Y-You—!" Shinji hissed, a venomous sneered on his face. Then he stopped, try to calmed himself down, a grimaced, a sign that he was failing. "H-Hey Emiya, you really think you can order me around eh? Haha…hahaahahahahahahaha! Well let me tell you something! You can't! So stop with your bad ass bravado! I know you don't have your Servant with you! You fucking moron!"

"—!" Shirou eyes widened at that, surprised, his left hand clenched, his command spell shone. Shinji let out a loud laugh at his surprise.

"What's wrong Emiya? Didn't think I wouldn't notice that your Servant isn't with you!? Well too bad!" Shinji mocked, a cruel smirk appeared on his face.

Shirou raised his left hand, command seal shone brightly, he needed to call Saber, he realized that this wasn't a battle he could win.

"GAH—!" Shirou screamed, eyes closed tightly, pain expression, he crashed against the glass window of the hall, it cracked against the impact. His blood spurt out through the air, right shoulder pierced by a nail, the bone was cracked, right arm hung limply, nearly tore off. Shirou opened a single to look at the one who had done this.

Rider stood there, two large nails in hands, connected by a chain, it was midair, it rattled. Rider had thrown one of those nails, pierced his right shoulder and swung him toward the window.

"Hah, hah, hah Emiya. No calling for your Servant." Shinji said, right index finger shook in a negative, playful manner. "How about a little game thought? Let's see how man—huh?"

Shinji stopped rambling, looked back, at the woman from behind him, the one with the spears placed a gauntlet arm on his shoulder.

"There's no time for this. Grabbed the Pillar and let's go." She said in a cold voice.

"W-W-What!? D-Don't think about going off and bossing me around. Your Lieutenant told me I could do whatever I wanted as long as I bring Emiya with me alive." Shinji said, a sneered clear on his face, he pushed the woman's armor hand off. The woman remained calm.

"This is a waste of time." She said, turned to one of her colleagues, the one who stood behind Rider. "Grab him and let's go."

The one with the multiple spears behind his back, moved forward. Shirou gave the man a frustrated look, teeth gritted in pain, sweat poured down his brown. The man was just about to grab him…

"Rider don't let him!" Shinji shouted, a clear command. Rider moved, the man barely had time to put his armored hands in front for a defense. A powerful kick send him skidding off toward a classroom.

"You would betray us, Shinji Matou!" The woman with the spears growled, armored lighting up for combat, her comrades got into battle positions.

"Don't get in my way if you don't want me to kill you then!" Shinji growled back, anger clear on his face.

A standoff was held, tension was clear on the air, one bad move and battle would begin. They all stood there glaring among themselves.

The sound of glass shattering snapped them out of there standoff.

"The Pillar jumped out the window!" One of the shield wielders shouted, everyone turned, looked at the broken window, glass flew in the air, the floor. They looked to where Shirou Emiya was supposed to be standing.

Shirou was currently on free-fall. He had jumped back, trying to get away, desperation to end Shinji's and those armored individuals plans. His back collided against the already cracked window, he fell, he grew more desperate as the ground grew closer, he put his left arm in front of him.

He didn't care about dying here, all he wanted was for everyone at the school to be okay, so for that he would have Saber do that in his stead. With bared teeth and narrowed eyes he howled.

 **"I ORDER YOU TO COME, SABER!"**

* * *

 **Author Notes:**

 **Here's another chapter for Future's Pride. I decided to cut this chapter in two, since I saw that the other half needed some reworking. I actually wanted to put on each chapter to go day by day, but I guess this can work to. Next chapter will probably be shorter or longer, who knows. Depends on how much description I wanna put on the chapter. Next chapter the fireworks will blow up.**

 **If there are any grammatical error I will checked them out later on.**

 **orocontra2012: Glad you are interested in the story. As for who that Master and Servant are, well I can't tell you that! Where's the fun in me spoiling stuff? Stay tuned to find out!**

 **hyperomegasonic26: Jesus, that's incredibly insane. I don't know if to applaud you or remain silent, letting you stew in wonder over you being right or wrong. I think I'll do both. Hope to see you in future chapters!**

 **matrience: Thank _you_ for the review! Hope you're liking thing so far.**

 **talesfanjmf: Of course I'm going to show just how bad ass Archer is! The guy is the most GAR ever! But don't worry, there'll be more badass moment for Archer down in the future.**

 **Hope you enjoyed, see you later!**


	4. Crazy Train Part 2

Fifth Holy Grail War, Day Five.

 **"I ORDER YOU TO COME, SABER!"**

Shirou Emiya's desperate, pained, angry cry pierced through the blood color air. The back of his left hand, one of the two remaining Command Seals light up, burst in red light and died down. The space and air beneath him rippled, it warped, a hole formed and a blue and silver bullet shot out.

The blue knight, Saber, landed on the floor with grace and elegance, just as Shirou crashes on the floor with a heavy thud, bones cracked, organs squashed, blood spurted out of his mouth.

"GRAGH!" Shirou gurgled, a pained expression, lips parted, eyes wide. Saber head snapped up, Shirou's pained gasp reached her ears, she turned her head back, looked at her injured Master. Sabers eyes widened, the sight of the injured Shirou made her concerned, she turned fully towards her Master.

"Shirou!" Saber called out, concerned colored in her voice, her silver armor feet moved with haste toward Shirou. She reached him, knelt right beside him, placed an armored gauntlet on his chest. Shirou's school uniform was torn, bloodied and cut, blood trickled down from the injury that Rider had made. Underneath Saber's armored hand, Shirou's body felt unnatural, broken bones struck out, the grind of metal could've been heard.

"S-S-S-Saber…" Shirou said, voice strained, teeth gritted, eyes closed, hands clenched. Shirou opened an eye, looked at Saber and winced. There was no time to be in pain, Rider, those guys and Shinji needed to be stopped. He forced the pain down, tried to seat up, but ended up falling back down. A silent gasp escaped him.

"Shirou! Shirou, stop moving! You are injur—!" Saber tried to say, but Shirou stopped her, his right arm reached for her shoulder, holding her firmly. He was happy that she was concerned for him, but they had to hurry. He gave Saber a focused look.

"Go Saber, we need to beat Rider!" Shirou said, desperation clear on his voice. His upper body moved up, he leaned against his shoulder, heavy breaths escaped him. Saber shook her head.

"No Shirou! We must attend your injuries first!" Saber said in concerned, her head shook in negative to Shirou's demands. She leaned toward Shirou, placed a hand on his injured shoulder, lifted his uninjured arm up, ready to pick him up and retreat toward safety.

"There's no time! Everyone in the school will die if we don't hurry! So Saber… _beat Rider!_ " Shirou commanded his voice strong, firm and determine. Saber stopped her actions, looked down at her Master with a surprised, worried expression. She sighed, nodded, and gained a steely expression. She looked down at her Master with cold green eyes.

"Understood Master, what are your orders?" Saber said, her tone cold.

From up above, the armored enemies, Shinji and Rider watched the scene below. The armored woman, the one who had stopped Shinji earlier, looked grimed, lips set down on a frown. Her companions, held the same expressions, they had their weapons out, hands tightened on their equipment. Tension was clear on the air.

"The Pillar, Emiya, he called for Saber…damn it, this is not good…" The armored woman, the one who had stopped Shinji, the leader of the present squad said. She was nervous, as was everyone else. The male shield wielder was sweating.

"We can't take on Saber head on! We'll be massacre!" He said, his voice tinted with fear, an audible gulp could've been heard. The woman with the liquid metal familiar clenched her fist, her familiar twitching and spamming around in agitation.

"Damn it, I knew accepting the assistance from the brat of a dying family was a horrible idea! What the hell was the Lieutenant thinking!?" said, teeth bare, she took a step back, away from the window and looked at her companions.

Shinji grinded his teeth, hands shook at the comment and at the sight of Shirou's Servant. His eyes were squinted, glaring daggers, breath shallow from anger. Shinji was seething. This was _'his'_ moment. This was supposed to be his moment to prove that he was no one's inferior, that he was the rightful heir of the Matou. He wasn't going to let Shirou or anyone else ruin this moment.

The woman, the squad leader, shook her head, white hood fluttering slightly with the movement.

"It's more than obvious that the Lieutenant wasn't thinking clearly. That fool can only think of the most _efficient_ ways to take care of a problem. Shinji Matou, this is where we—!" The woman's parting words was interrupted. Shinji Matou had just reached his boiling point.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! **SHUT THE FUCK UP!** " Shinji howled, teeth gritted tight, eyes wild, hair a mess, his fist clenched so tightly that it left an imprint on the book on his hand, the book that he use to command Rider. A second passed, Shinji's face returned back to normal, his body relaxed, fist unclenched, smile on his face, eyes closed. Shinji Matou calmed down. "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill whatever the fuck a 'Pillar' is…no, I think I'll do it after I fuck with his Servant. I've always wanted to see the helpless face of Emiya, might be fun."

The armored squad present heard this, they looked at Shinji with a look of contempt, annoyance or disgust. Rider stood behind Shinji, stoic, unmoving. The squad leader bared forth her spear.

"So you are betraying us." The woman stated, voice dull, her hold over her weapon tightened. "You're a fool if you think that's going to happen. I truly don't see what the Lieutenant saw in you, but I can safely say that the Director would not approve of some pretender magus like you. And anyway the _Pillar_ , Emiya, must be retrieve alive…you on the other hand…"

Shinji let out a high pitch laugh. The laugh was loud, his cheeks stretched from the massive grin. The words that he was less than Emiya got to him, the words that some third rate, some guy who didn't even know what a proper magus was, some _ **PUSHOVER** _ was better than him made him snapped.

" **RIDER!** " Shinji howled, a mad grin on his face, hands clenched over his book.

Rider move, faster than humanly possible, with agility that should be impossible, the Servant made her attack. The sound of chains clacking through the air could've been heard, in Rider's hands were her chained-nails, she twisted, spun above Shinji, the actions caused the chains to twist like a mad tornado around Shinji and pushed the armored individuals. The armored squad moved their weapons, barely fast enough, and counter-attacked their expression of fright, anger or worry at Rider's attack.

The armored squad defended against Rider's attack, their equipment impeding the chains to cause any serious damage, but their enemy was still a Servant, no matter how weak she may be thanks to her lack luster Master, they were still pushed back. Some of them stumble back, some fell, but the squad leader skidded back, her knees bent, spear in a defensive manner, head low. She stopped, fell into one knee, her head snapped back, she glared at the smug looking Shinji.

"Hey Rider, let's go down there and fuck up Emiya." Shinji said, his tone completely smug, hints of anger there. The Servant landed, knees bent for a charge, behind Shinji, her feet did not make any sound, as if her body was as light as a feather. Just as quickly as she landed, she moved forward, right arm grasped her Masters waist, secured him and jumped through the window that Shirou had fallen through.

Down below, Saber got up, once she was sure that Shirou had recovered enough to run, charged toward the school building, her face set in stone, her Masters orders clear. But she stopped, silver armored feet stomped on the floor hard, it left a crack on the school floor. She looked up, through the red air, saw that both Rider and Shinji flying through the air, before Rider landed on the school yard with Shinji on her arms.

"Shinji…" Shirou called, his voice focused on the enemy Master, he turned his head toward the school building, searching for the armored enemies, but did not see them.

"Hey Emiya, don't turn your back on me…!" The voice of Shinji carried out, Shirou tilted his head slightly to look at Shinji and Rider with his left eye, not giving Rider's Master his full attention. Shinji noticed this as his face had a look of indignation and rage. "Emiya…you…you better look at me! I'm not going to have some no name fucking useless magus look down on me!"

Saber moved to Shirou's side, invisible blade in hand, ready to cut down Rider at a moment notice. Shirou looked at Saber, nodded and turned his full attention toward the school building, where the armored enemies were.

"Saber, there's still all those armor guys up there I told you we need to beat as well. I'll—!" Shirou said, already making plans, but Saber shifted a little, her armor made a noise which stopped Shirou from talking. He turned toward his Servant.

"You will do nothing, Master. Stay here, I shall end this battle quickly and take care of our other enemies." Saber said, her body rigid, still facing her enemy. Shirou was about to say something, but Shinji growled at them.

"You two…you two are underestimating me…I'll…I'll…RIDER!" Shinji howled in rage. "Kill them, kill them, kill them! Fuck keeping Emiya alive, fuck that bitch up! I want nothing but a stain of blood on the fucking floor!"

At Shinji commands Rider move. She burst into speed, flickering out of existence, the floor beneath her feet broke. Shinji lost his balance at the sudden show of force, a look of rage on his face, but his eyes still focus on Shirou and Saber. His desire for their deaths cleared as crystal.

Shirou turned back fully, giving Shinji and Rider his full attention, and was just in time to see Rider appear in front of him, her sharp and deadly bladed nails pointed at his forehead and throat. Shirou barely let out a gasp when Saber slammed into Rider with her invisible blade. Rider defended, her body twisted into an inhuman angle and used the her nails to stop Saber from cutting her down.

Saber used her strength and momentum to make a powerful swing, swatting away Rider from Shirou and toward more open space. Rider flew through the red air, flipped, righted herself and landed on all four. Saber did not allow for Rider to catch her bearings as she charged, reached her and slashed downward, intending to end the battle with a single blow.

But Rider did not allow this to happen.

Rider defended, used her nails to stop the swing, dodged the next slash and dodged another and another and another. Rider tried to counter-attack, to find any hole in Sabers defenses, anything that could allow her a moment to breath. But Saber showed no weakness, she only allowed for Rider to defend with her weapons or dodged.

Seven seconds had passed and Saber had enough of this battle. The air around her invisible sword twisted and spun, like a miniature tornado. The wind blasted around Shirou and Shinji, nearly making them fall over. Rider recognize the danger quickly, took a step back, her feet stumble as the wind grew stronger.

"GRAAH!" Saber roared, pulled her sword toward her body and stabbed at Rider. But Rider jumped back, avoided the stabbed and was blasted away as Saber unleashed the powerful winds from her blade. The entire school yard was cover in dust as the powerful wind moved, like a hurricane.

Shirou cough, as he tried to look through the dust, still amazed by the power that Saber possessed. The wind continued to howled, dust moving away from where Saber had been, until it had finally died down, the dust flew away from them and gave Shirou a view of the battle.

Rider rolled through the floor, stopped, tried to get up and fell to her knees. Her clothes were torn, blood trickled down from her forehead, it stained her mask, lips and black clothing.

"Rider…!? W-W-What are you doing!? Get up!?" Shinji screamed with a look of frustration and fright clear on his face.

Saber set her blade back, the wind stabilized, the blade gone completely invisible once more, she nodded in satisfaction. Saber looked at her fallen enemy, took a step forward and shot away like a bullet, intending to defeat Rider once and for all. Saber reached Rider, the Servant in black raised her head towards her, tried to put a defense, but fail. Saber raised her blade over her head.

A spear, coated in a blue-hued of magical energy, flew through the red air like a javelin toward Saber's side.

The Servant in blue noticed this quickly, spun around, smashed her weapon down, destroyed the spear and looked at the direction of the attack. She saw two armored enemies with white capes, that seemed familiar to her, male and female, both with cross shape shields. The two were in mid-air, right above a confuse Shirou, each on to both his sides, their hands out stretched to catch him.

"Shioru!" Saber shouted, she disappear into a blur. Shirou looked at Saber in surprised for the shout, confused over the spear and then noticed the two shadows on the floor, to his left and right. He looked up at the armored enemies, his eyes widened in pure surprise. Before either of the enemies could even touch the floor Saber was upon them and unleashed a mighty slashed.

The enemies barely had enough time to put up their cross shields up, the invisible blade of Saber smashed into the two of them, blowing them away with their shields dent slightly. Saber spun around just in time to stop another javelin throw coming for her face, Saber knocked it away, toward her left.

The spear weapon spun out of control through the red air, its blue energy flickered, a line of magical energy, like a rope, formed towards the awaiting armored hand of the woman who had stopped Shinji. She stood in front of a confused, angry Shinji, she pulled back and the spear flew back into her gauntlet, caught it and glare at them. Her others companions landed beside her, the two shield wielders, scrambled of from the floor and jumped to stand beside their comrades, their cross shields bent but functional.

Saber's face was set in stone, but her green eyes held confusion in them, as she stare at the white capes with the blue knot.

"W-What the hell are you…!?" Shinji question trailed off, looking at the squad leader with a confused and irritated expression. The woman tilted her head back slightly, her hooded eyes glared at Shinji with hostility. Shinji took a step back, fear griped his heart, another step backward was taken and he collided with a body. Shinji quickly turned and saw Rider behind him, having jumped away from her last position when she saw the armored individuals arrived. This returned Shinji's confidence back, even though he was still embarrassed and angry as to how easily Rider was defeated, he turned toward his former armored allies.

"In case you haven't heard, we must retrieve the two Pillars here. Emiya there, unfortunately, has one of the strongest Servants in this eastern ritual. And our most powerful ally refuses to battle her. So for now we'll work together." The squad leader said plainly. "We would've been more than happy to have left you and Rider battled it out here, but we were not expecting that you were so usel—that Saber was so strong. We know that defeating Saber is impossibility, not with how unprepared we are. But weakening her will be huge for our organization."

"You talk as if your assistance will make a difference, it will not. Magus, your magic is inefficient against me and as such will make you a liability. Give up, I have already beaten Rider. Put down this boundary field and accept defeat or be prepared to meet force should you refuse." Saber said with a hard tone, she regarded her enemy with a critical, inspecting the white cape on them.

"You idiot…" Shinji growled out, teeth grinded against each other, eyes twitched, and sweat poured through his face. His white and black Mystic Code began to feel uncomfortable. Saber paid him no mind, her gaze locked on the white cape. Shirou walked towards Saber and stopped a couple of feet away.

"Magus…tell me, how have you come in to possession of such artifacts?" Saber asked, her hold over her weapon tightened. The armor enemies looked surprise, the leader of the squad shook her head.

"…I see. It was to be expected. The Director warned us of this possibility, that you would recognize our equipment with a single glance." The leader stated, her hold over her weapon tightened in anticipation.

Saber eyes widened, took a step forward and looked at her enemies in shock, her battle stance forgotten.

"Impossible!" Saber shouted in outrage, it shocked Shirou, seeing the ever calm and collected Saber shout. "It can't be possible, it just can't be…! Those cloaks, even from here I can recognize its magical energy, I can even tell the process in which they were made! But…!"

Saber rambling were cut short when something caught Shirou's eyes, something that was coming out of the ground near Saber's feet.

"Saber watch out!" Shirou screamed, eyes wide, step forward, right hand outstretched, it was futile attempt to help his Servant. But it was unneeded, Saber's instinct had already screamed out the danger that was occurring.

Her right leg moved forward, turned her head to look down just in time to see a liquid metal stretched out its 'head' and bit the spot where her armored leg was.

"Familiar!?" Saber exclaimed, with gritted teeth as she twisted her body slightly to get the liquid metal familiar into her swords range. Before Saber could've finished moving, the familiar's 'body' extended, going over its 'head', formed another 'head' with razor 'teeth' and bit on Saber leg. It did not even scratch the armor she wore.

Saber slashed downward, a devastating blow that cut the familiar's 'head' and destroyed the floor underneath. The familiar let out a whine that was more akin to metal scrapping together. Saber, then turned around and deflected a spear that heading for her with a swing, the spear spun, magical energy shone before it was pull back by a male enemy. Saber lips twitched downward.

Six spears were thrown like javelin in a consecutive manner by the three armored enemies, each spear traveled at speeds beyond what a human could ever accomplished. But their enemy was a Servant, Saber knew that this attack would fail, so did armor enemies. They knew this was only delaying the inevitable.

Saber slashed her blade, her movement precise, not a single bit of energy wasted in her actions, she destroyed all six spears. The spears fell toward the floor helplessly, each one cut in half, magical energy escaped through the cut parts like smoke. Saber took her stance, once more, she locked eyes with a female enemy, one that wielded the giant wand with the gem on the top, just as she finished an incantation.

A magical circle was form underneath Saber and Shirou, Saber reacted quickly, she turned and push Shirou hard, Saber's Master was sendoff rolling until he hit the building walls behind him and out of the magical circles reach. Shirou groaned, dazed a little, shook his head to get rid of it and looked to where his Servant was. Saber looked back at him, relief that he was away from the magic circle and was consumed by a torrent of fire, the flames reached up, higher than even the school building.

"Saber!" Shirou screamed, worried over Saber's safety. He got up, ready to launch himself toward the fire, but stopped when the fire disappeared and Saber stood there, unscathed. Heat blurred where Saber was, but Shirou let out a sigh of relief, turned toward where his enemies were and gritted his teeth.

Saber repeated her Master's action, she took a battle stance, charge forward, intending to defeat her enemy before they attempted another strategy. The armored enemies jumped back, or got out of the way. Saber reached for the one with wand, slashed the wand in half and kicked her away. Sabers was ready to charge at one of the shield wielders and break their defenses, a white light interrupted her charged.

Saber spun around, teeth gritted, eyes focus as she slashed. Her eyes widened as the light, like a beam came crashing towards her. Saber barely dodged toward her right, it passed by her and curved up toward the skies, the force from the light send her rolling toward the school building walls, much like what had happened to her Master, she crashed, wall cracking under the impact, and Saber let out a hissed.

Shirou had cover his eyes, the white light had been quite intense and hurt his eyes, he shook his head, blinked several times and turned when he heard the sound of metal and concrete crashing. His eyes widened at the sight of Saber's blue dress and silver armor somewhat burnt by the right side.

"Saber! Ar…" Shirou stopped his concerned cry, as he felt the overwhelming amount of magical energy in the sky. He looked up and saw it.

It was a Pegasus, the divine mystery flapped its winged as it stayed on the air with Rider riding it. Shinji laughed.

"Go Rider! Killed them! Kill all of them! Use your Noble Phantasm and crush them all" Shinji cheered, farther back than what he had been previously, a manic grin on his face. The armored enemies all pull back, all of them recognized the danger and decided to be as far away as possible.

"Get ready, Saber." Rider stated as she obeyed the command, the Pegasus flapped its wing and charged toward Saber at incredible, leaving a white streak of light along its path. Saber from her downed position, jumped up quickly, pushed Shirou back and met Riders charge with her Invisible Air. The ground exploded beneath Saber's feet, she skidded back, her armored chipped, she glared at Rider.

"You…to believe you would have such beast!" Saber said, a frown clear on her face.

"Huh, I'm quite different from you Saber." Rider said, her voice stoic as she was.

"Yes. I can see that quite clearly now, Rider." Saber stated, her stance rigid, her glare hostile.

"Humph. Enough, things are getting much out of control in this situation. I must make sure my Master make sure he is fine after today events. I am afraid he has made some dangerous enemies, but I am sure you understand. So this is the end, playtime is over." Rider said plainly, high up in the air, her Pegasus then shot up, it left a trailed of light, it curved as it went higher and higher into the sky.

"Yes! Yes! Go higher, higher! Kill all of them!" Shinji's voice screamed his voice grating Shirou's hears.

Saber jumped back, she turned toward her, ready to pull him out towards safety, but stop. Her green eyes looked at the school building behind them, where a multitude of innocent lives were. Saber could not take the risk to allow whatever Rider Noble Phantasm was destroy that building. She looked up, to where Rider was ascending, that fantastical beast was proved enough to how destructive Rider's Noble Phantasm was going to be.

There was only one solution.

"To believe I would be forced to use it here, in such a populated area…" Saber said, irritation clear on her voice. She placed the blade in front of her, then a great storm of wind raged from her blade, the manifestation of a hurricane. Saber began to unravel her blade, released the layers of wind and broke the seal that kept her sword hidden.

Shirou's eyes were squinted, he tried to see through the raging wind, had his left arm up, shielding his face. Golden light filtered through his eyes.

"H-Huh?" Shirou was confused, he lowered his arm and looked to where Saber was. The winds had started too died down and with it the golden light became much more prominent. It was then that Shirou saw it. Sabers blade, her golden blade, it was there that Shirou knew that sword had to be the strongest. "Saber…?"

"Prepare yourself! I shall hold the strength of my blade back for the sake of the innocent!" Saber stated, both hands held the weapon, she rose her blade up, over her head and stood firm. "Let us see if you can match my blade's power, RIDER!"

Up in the sky, Rider's Pegasus descended, like a cometh, at incredible speeds. The streak of white light looked more like a powerful lightning descending down with incredible power.

"BELLERO—!

Rider's charge descended toward the school with overwhelming power.

"Ex—!"

Golden particles of light converged around Saber.

" **—PHON!** "

Rider's Noble Phantasm was cast, it unleashed Rider's true power. Rider was upon Saber, but she tilted slightly toward the left.

" **—CALIBUR!** "

Saber unleashed hers, as she swung down her blade down. Golden light was unleashed at point blank against Rider's charge.

White and Golden light collided.

It blinded everyone present. Shirou was thrown back, his back hit the wall behind him, he pulled his head down, his arms cover his head. The sound magical energy exploding was the only thing that could be heard, until it stopped. Shirou then heard the sound of something crashing against the school building.

Shirou raised his head to look, smoke covered the area, the red boundary field had been destroyed.

He then looked up toward the sky and gasped. The clouds up above were split apart, golden particles traveled all the way up, the effects of Saber's power. Shirou stood up, slowly, shaking and looked to where the crashed had happened.

It was by the second floor of the building, the wall was collapsed, it allowed for anyone to see inside the hall. There was the body of Rider, she was still alive but barely. Her body was a utter mess, mangled, bloody and scorched. It dangled on the edge of the second floors hallway before it disappear.

The sound of metal hitting the floor caught his attention. He turned back to where the smoke was and saw blonde hair.

"Saber!" Shirou screamed, the smoke had started to clear off, letting Shirou get a better view of his Servant. She knelt down on the ground, blade on the floor, breathing heavily. Shirou ran towards her, he reached her and knelt beside her. She looked at him.

"Shirou…you are alright…" Saber said with difficulty, a smile present on her face. Shirou smiled as well.

"—wait, no, no, no, no, no! GUUUAAAAAAAAAGH—!" The two heard a familiar voice scream.

"Shinji." Shirou said, his tone hard. The smoke cleared, it revealed an unconscious Shinji, bloodied face, with the woman who had stopped him earlier over him. She knelt down, picked him up, and threw him over her shoulders. She then turned to look at them, her companions landed right beside her.

Saber suddenly stood up, held her sword firmly and glared at their enemies. Shirou stood up as well, he knew that Saber had been greatly weakened when she use her Noble Phantasm. This was nothing but false bravado. Everything stood still for a couple of moments, then the armored woman nodded at them and jumped away disappearing through the school gates.

Saber collapsed, but Shirou was there, he caught her. Shirou nearly let her go, the heat that she gave off hurt him. But he held firm. Her eyes slowly drifted to a close. Her lips moved.

"…could it really…be…you…" Saber said, before fully going unconscious.

Shirou looked at her with concerned, before he sighed, he looked around at the school.

He needed to call the emergencies services before he could go home with Saber.

* * *

 **Author Notes**

 **Hey there, here's a new chapter and the other half of last week's chapter. Thing was that it looked like I had a couple of problem with describing the fight. Welp, still managed to get it out. What I wasn't really expecting was how long it turned out.**

 **hyperomegasonic26: Geez that would be pretty cool, wouldn't it? An army of fakers running around, Gilgamesh would be so proud. Proud of the massacre he would unleash that. But man, keep your guesses coming! There is quite fun! To be interacting with my viewers.**

 **Synndraval: Yep, gotta keep the mystery going. It was what made reading the Visual Novel so much fun at the beginning.**

 **matrience: You are welcome.**

 **death0887: Who knows? Maybe it's not, maybe it's from another dimension? 'Shrugs' 'cheeky grin'**

 **Guest: Don't worry, things will get explained. As for the Clock Tower but, I did explained that it was an overwhelming attack and that the Tower was compromised from within. I didn't go into detail with the attack so that I could leave it up to the viewer to imagine how things would go. I also had various characters say that the equipment the enemy has is Servant created. Keep reading, see if it's to your liking.**

 **Hope you enjoy, later!**


	5. Winter Devil

Fifth Holy Grail War, Day Six.

The afternoon sun shone brightly up in the sky.

"…yeah, is Fuji-nee alright?" Shirou Emiya asked, telephone on his hand, tone tense, posture rigid, a worried look on his face. On the other side of the line was Taiga's father, the older man was on the hospital accompanying his hospitalized daughter.

"…"

"Oh. So she'll be fine then." Shirou said, a relief sigh escaped his lips, his body relaxed a little after he heard the positive news. "And what about the others, Fujimura-san? How's Sakura? Issei? Or all the others? How are they doing? Were they affected worse by…uh, the 'gas leak'?"

"…"

"…I see, they'll be at the hospital for a few weeks then…yeah, I guess I was pretty lucky about not being at the school…" Shirou said lamely, he looked down, eyes distracted by his socked feet, a frustrated frown on his face. "Well thanks for telling me what's up with the others, I was worried…yeah, I know, I'll be careful out here…no I can take care of myself, you really don't need worry about me. Bye."

With those words Shirou ended the call, put down the phone and sigh. He brought his left hand up to his face, massaged his temple, eyes closed. The events from yesterday had rattled him slightly, not expecting for things to go south so quickly and so bad. Still he was content to had helped out as much as possible, he had called the authorities and medics to come in and help everyone who had been trapped by the boundary field.

Not that it was needed though, the boundary field that is, not after Saber's Noble Phantasm.

Shirou dropped his left hand down and looked down at his Command Spell, his final Command Spell, the prove that he was a participant of this Holy Grail War, that he was Saber's Master. He had been nothing if lucky at having managed to call out Saber to assist him with yesterday's battle against the white armor mages, Shinji and his Servant, Rider. But what if something like this occurred again?

If Shirou lost his final Command Spell, would Saber disappear? What would he do to prevent anymore disaster like yesterday or like the one with Rin's home being attacked? Or even with the fire incident from ten years ago…

 ** _"Rejoice, boy. Your wish will finally come true."_**

Yes, those words still echoed deep inside of Shirou. No matter how many times he had tried to deny them or just suppressed them, the priest's words just kept on ringing on his ears. The Master of Saber clenched his left hand into a tight fist, golden-brown eyes glared at it, teeth grinded behind tight lips.

Still it didn't matter, everyone back at the school had gotten the medical attention they needed and Saber had defeated the ones who caused everyone at the school to be in danger. No one had been killed, and for him, that was more than enough.

"Hm. I should check up on Saber." Shirou said after a moment, he unclenched his fist, relaxed, turned away from the telephone and walked away. He walked calmly to where Saber was resting, his face relaxed into a neutral expression, the wood beneath his feet made soft creaks with each footstep. He made it to the house's hallway and continued toward Saber's room.

Saber, the name came up into Shirou's thoughts. If there ever existed any doubt that Saber was either weak or needed help, after yesterday's demonstration such thoughts were purged away from his mind. Her Noble Phantasm, Excalibur, it was such a magnificent sight to behold. Just at the sight of that sword made Shirou feel queasy.

That golden sword, no, calling it anything short of a Divine Blade was insulting to just how incredibly powerful the blade was. If Shirou had anything to say about that divine sword, it was that without any doubt, that sword was the strongest.

Shirou stopped walking abruptly, almost crashed against the door that lead for Sabers room. He shook his, berated himself for his clumsiness and brought his hand toward the door. He slid the door room gently, silently, not wishing to disturb Saber from her rest. Shirou peek his head into the room, eyes searched for his Servant. His eyes focused on the sleeping Saber.

She slept on her back, blanket covered her body up to her chest. Her face was slightly tense, her brow twitched slightly ever so often, face constricted into a cringe. But her body remained still, the rise and fall of her chest was the only indicator of her being alive.

Shirou frowned at the sight. After Saber had used Excalibur she had collapsed, exhausted and barely even got to her feet to protect him from the white armor mages. After the armor enemies had left, she fell unconscious and he went to call the authorities. When he got back to her, he had not expected for her body to feel as if it was on fire. He had panicked, his plan to have Saber changed back to normal cloth so that he could talk to the authorities was completely revoked when he took note of her conditions.

So Shirou carried her, holstered her up on his back and ran. Her burning body burnt his, but his panicked kept him going. Shirou ran all the way from the school, he ignored the crowd of people that came to look at the spectacle, he ignored when one police officer tried to run after him in concern.

Shirou just ran.

He made it home, but the desperation to try and fix up Saber overtook him. He needed to find a way to help his Servant and standing at the house entrance would not help anyone. The thought of the bathroom, the tub filled with cold ice water crossed his head. And he ran there, knocking many things along the way to get to the tub.

Shirou's mind drifted back to the present, he let his eyes wondered off her face to look at her chest, a bright red blushed appeared. He had not thought about it at the time, but in his panicked, focused mindset he had taken all of Sabers cloth off while the tub filled with the water. Still the knowledge that Saber's body had started to cooled made it worth it, aside from all the embarrassing thoughts that crept up when he cloth Saber back up and put her on her bed.

He shook his head, slid the door closed gently, leaned against it and sighed. He needed to stop.

Saber was incredibly beautiful, her finely textured golden hair. Her young face, that displayed signs of naivety and yet showed an almost otherworldly elegance. And her body, a slender physique that made it seemed like it was in their late teens, yet there was muscle present. It showed that her body was that of a hero, seasoned, firm and still feminine. When Shirou saw Saber's naked body, moaning, he felt—

He slapped himself, hard.

"…don't be such a pervert, Shirou." He said to himself, a winced clear on his expression and a red handprint on his right cheek. It stung, but it was enough that it kept him from thinking of Saber in such manner. "I better go and prepare lunch, when Saber wakes up, she'll be pretty hungry."

He nodded to himself and walked down the hall.

Still, he was worry about his Servant, she had been like that ever since he put her down on her room. Shirou twisted his head back, look at the hall behind him, the door to the room where Saber rested, he sigh. He had thought that she would've woken up by the time for breakfast, but she remained the same. He hoped that the very least she would wake up, go up to him with her strong and graceful steps, tell him that everything's was fine and eat lunch with him.

That would alleviate his heart.

"Hrm, I should really go down and do some shopping. Saber is going to need all the food she can eat, yeah that should help her when she wakes up." Shirou said with, conviction clear on his voice. A smile spread on his lips, a nod of satisfaction, relief flooded him and he continued down to the kitchen.

Shirou's body moved in automatic, his movement almost robotic as he put on his apron, got the food out of the fridge, the utensils and placed them on the kitchen counter. He cooked, made a meal big enough for two people, placed them on the table by the living room, prepared tea, sat on the table and ate the lunch he had prepared. He ate absentmindedly, eyes focused by the door that lead to the Livingroom where he was, he waited for Saber to come, to have recover from her condition from yesterday, to see her awake and active.

But much like in the time for breakfast… _she never came._

 **.**

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Shirou walked through the shopping district disappointed, tensed, stiff. In his arms were a couple bags, filled with food, tea packets and drinks. The bags were heavy, but Shirou was used to it, he was aware that when he got home his arm where going to have marks from the bags that hanged off. He adjusted the bags, the white-black jacket's sleeve wrinkled under the weight of the grocery bags.

"Hrm. Still…I think I over did it a little…I bought way too much. There won't be any space left on the fridge to put all off this stuff in." Shirou muttered, his head swivel from side to side, his eyes took in the bags on his arms. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, but chose not to turn back and return some of the groceries.

He continued to walk, looked up, maintained his eyes forward, eager to get home. Shirou blinked as he noticed a man dress in in a white suit with a two black belts strapped to the suits chest, it seemed familiar to Shirou, the man walked in a hurried manner, the man nearly crashed into him, so Shirou sidestep to the right. Shirou had not expected to crash against someone.

A female childish voice cried out in indignation.

"Huh!? H-Hey are you alrigh—!" Shirou turned toward his right, the white suited man forgotten, his face conveyed nothing but worry, golden-brown eyes filled with apology, but he froze at the sight of the girl on the floor.

A young girl with silver hair, dressed in purple glared up at him with her red color eyes and a small pout on her lips. Shirou did not even hesitate when he jumped back, passing people were nearly knocked down, Shirou ignored their angry cries, his bags almost broke at the sudden movement.

It was no mistake that the fallen girl was the Master of Berserker.

"Onii-chan…! You should be more careful were you go." The silver hair girl said, a frown of displeasure clear on her face. Shirou tensed up at the girls frown. He gritted his teeth, parted his legs slightly, ready to run, his eyes looked down at the girl in caution.

"Don't tell me you are…don't tell me you want to fight me here?" Shirou said, a nervous sweat rolled down his forehead. The girl's frown of displeasure deepened, her face clearly told the copper hair young man that the question he had muttered was a stupid one.

"…? You're saying strange things. We can't fight while the sun's up." The Master of Berserker said simply. Shirou blinked at the words. The tension that had built over the encounter evaporated from his body. He looked down at the fallen girl with concern now, his previous caution evaporated along with the tension, slightly. So he walked towards and knelt down in front of her, the girl looked at him in confusion in response.

"Are you okay?" Shirou asked, concern clear on his voice, he offered her his right hand. The silver hair girl looked at the hand for a moment, contemplation, confusion present in her eyes.

"…? Huh, Oni-chan that's very gentlemanly-like of you." The girl said after a moment, her tone confident, yet innocent and childish. As the girl accepted the hand, Shirou pulled her up to her feet. The girl patted off her purple coat, her hands dusted off any filth that may had stained her cloth.

She smiled up at him. When Shirou saw the young girls smile, he wanted nothing more than to smack himself for the mere thought of this girl being dangerous. For Shirou it was clear that the girl was just an innocent girl that had been thrown into whatever mess the Holy Grail War was.

"Uh…so, uh…you're…Illya right?" Shirou stammered out the question, unsure if he had remembered it right.

"Huh?" At the girl's confused response, a waved of shame filled him.

"Oh—sorry, that's wrong….right!? It's…uh…your name it's, uh…! Illyas…uh, Illyas…" Shirou tried to apologized by saying her name correctly, but failed immensely as the rest of her name failed to come up to mind. Embarrassment filled him.

"…" The silver hair girl did not say anything, her eyes glared at Shirou, but they lacked any heat on them. The glare was more childish than anything.

"Oh, sorry about that…I kinda of blurted out your name without being sure if I got it right. Uh, please don't get mad." Shirou apologized, the girl just raised both hands up to her chest with a pout.

"Tell me your name." The girl demanded, her glare looked much more childish now. Shirou just blinked in confusion.

"What?"

"Tell me your name, Onii-chan. It's unfair that you know my name, but I don't know your name." The girl, Illya, clarified.

Shirou looked down at the girl in bewilderment, yet, a strange warmth had filled up inside of him. He had gotten her name right, even if he knew he had been missing the rest of her name fully, he had gotten it right. He didn't understand why it made him feel happy, but for him it didn't matter. His lips moved upward, a smile formed on his face.

"I'm Shirou. Emiya Shirou." He said his name simply.

"Emiyashiro? That's a strange name, Onii-chan." Illya said, her lips pursed, eyes squinted, right index finger on her chin, as she tried to pronounce Shirou's name correctly.

"No. Emiya is my last name, and Shirou is my first name. If it's hard to say it, just call me Shirou." Shirou corrected, his smile still present. Illya looked up at him in surprise.

"…Shirou, Shirou, huh?" Illya said slowly, the name rolled off her tongue somewhat awkwardly and yet, her expression of surprised melted away to reveal a small smile on her face. "Yeah, I like the name. It's simple, but it sounds pretty. It suits you, Shirou. I'll forgive you for what you just did!"

The words that Illya had uttered were honest and childlike. Shirou felt his smile widened, the happiness that the girl exuded proved somewhat contagious. Though he had not expected for the silver hair girl to jump at him, hug him, grabbed his jacket and drag him toward opposite direction that lead toward his house.

"W-Wait—! I-I-Illya! What are you doing!?" Shirou gasped, as he was lead forward roughly. Illya just laughs at his question.

"I want to speak with you Shirou! I came here especially just to meet you!" Illya said happily, her laughter and joy quite prevalent, her words held no hostility or motive, they were just the words of an innocent child. People around watch the scene with amuse eyes or questioning ones at the scene before them.

Shirou himself just held a face full of hysterics as he tried to keep himself from tripping down.

"Wait! You planned this!?" Shirou asked, incredulous, cautious at being found so easily. Memories from the events of yesterday filled his mind.

Shinji, someone he could've never suspected to be a participant of the Holy Grail War, had turned out to be a Master, and a very cruel one at that. Still, Shinji's Servant, Rider had been defeated in the end by Saber's Noble Phantasm. Shirou had seen Rider disappear with his own two eyes, the question was though, had she been defeated fully? Or had she been just injured badly and escaped?

He hoped it was the former, he really didn't wish to fight against Shinji anymore, even if what he had done was horrible…but the important question now was, where had the white armored enemies taken him? Or for that matter, what about what Issei had told him about Ayako and Souichirou-sensei? Or any other that had been kidnapped by them?

They had wanted to kidnap him for something, and they had managed to get away because Saber had been too tired to continue the battle. No, Shirou amended, they had escaped because they realize that even if Saber had been tired, she still had shown that she was ready and able to defeat them. The enemy probably had decided that it was too risky to attempt and get him. But they were still at large an—

The sound of snapping fingers brought Shirou out of his musings. Shirou blinked, his golden-brown refocused on childish big red eyes, Illya glared up at him with annoyance.

"Hey Shirou, you didn't even listen to a thing I said did you?" Illya asked with a pout.

"Oh…? I-I…uh, sorry Illya I guess I got lost in thought. Uh, so what did you say?" Shirou amended and asked with hints of embarrassment. He had not intended to ignore Illya.

"Humph." Illya glared at him with pursed up lips and arms crossed. The glare left her eyes, replaced with a solemn look, lips tightened into a thin line. "I really wanted to talk to you, but if your busy…I'll go home and not bother you anymore. I don't want you to hate me for bothering you."

Illya said those words sadly, her red eyes stared right at Shirou's. Shirou had to take step back in surprise. That expression truly did not fit her.

"H-Hey, wait a moment, Illya I'm really not all that busy…it's just that I got lost in thought. It's…uh, it's been a busy day, that's all." Shirou clarified, as he tried to amend for his blunder.

Shirou was aware that she was a Master and because of that, she was an enemy to fear. But even if she was a Master, all he saw was a child that looked sad at his caution. And really, even if it was reckless, he couldn't really leave her with a sad face.

"Alright! Then I can forgive you for that!" At that, Illya looked at him with a happy expression. "You should really pay more attention Shirou! I snuck out past Sella just to see you. You better feel honored."

Shirou had to blink at the sudden mood switch.

"R-Really…?" Shirou asked, dumbfounded at the energy that she had just shown.

"Yes! I did all that just for you." Illya said with a happy smile. She started to twirl around, she moved away from him, dodged incoming people with each twirl. "Come on! I found a small park over there earlier!"

At those words, Illya points forward and runs away, a happy aura exuded from her in waves.

Shirou watched the scene with wide eyes, the childish nature of Illya somewhat surprising him as a memory of that fateful night when he summoned Saber came into mind. What kind of child could've entered something as dangerous as the Holy Grail? In fact, what kind of child could've summoned a monster like Berserker?

But, those questions evaporated when the girl turned towards him with a childish and joyful face.

"Come on, come on! I'll leave you behind if you don't hurry!"

It was those words what made any doubt or hesitation disappeared. For now, he would treat Illya like a normal girl, and not as a Master.

With that affirmation in mind, he walked forward and followed her.

 **.**

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Shirou had managed to keep up with Illya even though she had been running in a free-spirited way. He stood beside the young girl, he looked down, his eyes took in her brightened red eyes has she survey the area. Shirou did the same, raised his head, looked around and saw that they were in a small park, alone.

Illya walked forward, no, it would be accurate to say she skipped forward, she made it to the empty bench on the park and sat down. Shirou saw the silver hair girl looked at him, he sighed, walked towards her, put the bags down on the bench and sat down on the empty space.

Shirou blinked a couple of times, Illya just looked at him silently, they stayed like that for a minute.

"So…uh, so what are we going to talk about?" Shirou asked not really knowing what to say or what Illya wanted.

"Hmm? Hmm…I don't know." Illya said simply, her eyes looked up at him, she looked somewhat confuse from her seated position.

"…Illya, you're the one who wanted to talk. How can you say that you don't know what to say after all the trouble you went through to get me? You should have something to say, right?" Shirou asked, confusion clear on his voice.

"B-But…aren't we already talking?" The way Illya phrased the question had been quite innocent, childish, without hidden intentions. Shirou stopped, the words said by the silver hair girl froze him. It wasn't that she had been wrong, it just surprised him that this was the direction the talk with the Master of Berserker would take.

 _'No, not the Master of Berserker…I'm talking to Illya here, so I should stop getting worked up over this.'_ Shirou thought, his earthly-golden eyes focused on the girl before him. He had already disregarded the danger to go with Illya alone, he had already made his decision. Shirou was not going to be backing out of this.

"Ahem. You're right, I guess…it's just, well I really don't know you at all, so I wouldn't want to say something that you might not like." Shirou said, as he tried to amend for his slip up.

"Oh, you're right. I really don't know anything about you either. So…what should I do? Do I ask you questions about yourself?" Illya asked Shirou, not sure over what to do.

"Yeah, that's a good way to go about. I'll try to act maturely to whatever question you ask." Shirou said with a small smile. Illya brightened up at the words, her lips curled up a happy expression crossed on her face.

The two talked for a while. Illya had asked a couple of things at the beginning about his person, from those questions Shirou took control of the conversations, after a while he had been the one that had done the talking.

Shirou had rambled on and on about mundane things like cooking or school, and Illya had been there nodding her head at whatever he had said. It felt, normal, and Shirou really didn't know if such thing was a good thing or a bad one. At the moment he had just decided to go along with it. There was no use of him getting worked about anything, Shirou knew that if Illya wanted him dead, he would've been the moment he had stepped into the park.

The two sat on the bench, silence wrapped itself over the park, yet it was a comfortable one. Shirou looked up at the sky, cloudy, yet the blue could be seen. Shirou's face suddenly fell into a frown, memories of the unconscious Saber filled his head. Illya took noticed of this.

"Hmm, is something wrong? You look sad." The silver hair girl's words snapped Shirou out of his thoughts. The copper hair teen looked down at Illya with confused, distracted eyes.

"Uh…?" Was all that came out Shirou's mouth, his thoughts of his blue Servant dispersed, the image of her sleeping faded. Shirou blinked a little to refocus himself back on the present. "What did you say?"

"I said you looked sad, Shirou…am I bothering you?" Illya asked, her expression was a curious one.

"No! No, you're not bothering me…it's just, well…" Shirou stopped himself, his tone nervous, wonder over if he should tell Illya about Saber filled him. Even if Illya was just a young girl, she was still a Master in the War and as such she could use that moment of weakness to go after him.

But, as he looked at her face of childish wonder, the thoughts that regarded her as a Master disappeared. He didn't know if she had been doing this on purpose, the fact that it always made him think of her in such innocent manner. And if it was, then she had succeeded quite easily.

"It's Saber…she fought against another Servant yesterday and after she won, she collapsed and hasn't woken up." Shirou said, after he relented and decided that if he would regret this bit of information, then he would deal with it later.

"Oh, is that it?" Illya said, disinterest clear on her voice, her head turned to looked at the rest of the park before her.

"Wait…you're not even the bit least interested about what happened to Saber?" Shirou asked in surprise. Illya turned her eyes back at him.

"No, talking about her seems boring if I already know what happened." Illya said simply, her voice cold. Shirou froze when Illya looked at him with cold red eyes, yet a morbid curiosity overcame him.

"How…?" _'Do you know what happened?'_ Those were the words that he had wanted to asked her, but the sudden coldness from Illya had caught him off-guard. It was at that moment that he knew that he was not dealing with an innocent child anymore, but with the Master of Berserker.

"Don't ask dumb _Onii-chan_ , anyone could see your fight quite clearly." The way Illya had said those words, they unsettle Shirou, such a cheerful tone, but the undertones of coldness and danger were present. A cold sweat broke from Shirou.

"…" No words were uttered from Shirou, as the tense atmosphere build up. Then with a simple flicker, Illya looks off to the side, as if called.

"It's getting late. Berserkers going to wake up at night, so I have to get going now." Illya said, she stood up, dusted off her purple coat, turned towards Shirou, hands behind her back and gave him a smile. It was a sign of a farewell.

"…yeah, I should go home too." Shirou responded after a moment, he stood up from the bench and looked at the Master of Berser—no, not until the sun sets. He looked at the silver hair girl, even if at the end she had shown a coldness that had reminded him of that night, when Saber and Archer had fought against Berserker, he could not deny that the time he had spent with the girl had been…nice.

"Okay, bye, bye Shirou!" Illya bid her farewell and sprint off, as she headed towards the exist of the small park. Shirou watched her run off, still, it would feel wrong not to say something.

"Hey Illya!" Shirou called out, his voice loud. The pale hair girl stopped abruptly, surprised, she turned to look at him with a confuse expression. Shirou saw that he had caught her attention, so continued. "Just be careful, the streets aren't safe for a young girl like you to be going off by yourself."

Shirou said the first thing that had come in to mind, he never knew if today was the only peaceful day he was going to have with Illya, so better he leave in a good note.

Illya looked at him in surprised for a second, then a smile appeared on her face.

"…! Okay! I'll bring out Berserker next time I sneak away from home!" Illya said cheerfully, eyes closed, childish smile. Shirou froze when he heard those words, Illya didn't pay any heed towards Shirou's shock and turned around to run, but she suddenly stopped. She turned half-way towards him. "You should also be careful too, Shirou."

"Huh…?" Shirou blinked in confusion, his shock over Illya's words had resided slightly at the girls warning.

"Going out through the streets without your Servant around is very dangerous. The outsiders, the ones who have been interfering with the Holy Grail War, if you're not careful…you might end up regretting." Illya said simply.

"Illya…" Shirou trailed off, not understanding what the girl was trying to day. Outsiders? Interfering with the War? Was she talking about…?

"But don't worry, I didn't let them get their hands on you while you were shopping. And I won't let them get you either." Illya said in a cheerful tone, her smile innocent.

 _ **"Because your mine."**_

Shirou froze. The words that had come from Illya were still cheerful and yet, Shirou could feel his spine shiver.

With that Illya ran off, she did not turned around and kept on going until she disappear from Shirou's sight. A ragged breath escaped Shirou's mouth.

"I…I really need to head home…" Shirou muttered to himself, his eyes scanned the rooftop for any of this _'outsiders'_ that Illya had mentioned. He felt nervous, jumpy, uncomfortable to be in such an open field. Maybe he should take Illya's advice seriously.

Being near his Servant never sounded so comforting as it did now.

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Shirou arrived at his house, bags in hand, he stood in front of his homes gates. He was tensed, his eyes had moved everywhere, he took in every detail, corner, shadows and passing people. Illya's words had left him more spooked than what he had ever thought it would.

The words that Issei had said to him, the white dressed people who had been found with Shinji and Ayako, and then the reveal that Shinji was a Master and allied with those white armor enemies, it had shocked him to had found that bit of information. Though, at the time, he had been distracted by the danger that his schoolmates faced. And after the defeat and retreats of his enemies, he had become too preoccupied with Sabers safety.

Shirou gritted his teeth in frustration.

He had been careless, the whereabouts of Ayako were a mystery, so was that of Souichirou-sensei or anyone else associated with these white suited people. Shirou knew that he may had jumped the gun by already associating the white suited people with the white armor enemies just for their primary use of the color of white. But, the evidence was present in Shinji.

Shinji had been seen with white suited people and later he had been an allied to the armor enemies, though, now he was not so sure the allied part. He had seen that Shinji's recklessness had gotten on his allies bad side, the fact that they had knocked him out and took him by force was a clear sign of the fragile alliance. The question was, where was he? Or more importantly, was he alive?

In the end those answers would have to be find later, when Saber recuperated from her collapse, he and her would have to go and patrol the streets and look for Shinji. He would go out by himself, but he knew that he wouldn't make any change and would more than likely caused a lot of troubles.

For now, he had made it home, a place that was safe and where he could relax. All he needed to do was entered into his home and check in on Saber. So he walked forward, passed through the gates and…

Something was not right.

Shirou didn't know what was wrong, but something was most definitely not right. The air, it felt heavy and something was missing, but he couldn't tell what it was. No, no that was wrong, something wasn't missing, Shirou had assumed too much. The correct assessment was that something had been modified, changed from its original function…

It was the Boundary Field that had been set up around the house. A field that would've alert him of any hostile intent, it made a bell that was on the ceiling ring. But it had been changed by someone while he had been away.

The throbbed in his left hand, where the Command Spell was, did not help.

A sudden fear consumed him, there enemies that had come into his home, that had set up a possible ambush. The enemy could've left or they could've been waiting for him inside, in the end that did not matter.

Saber had been unconscious when he had left. By the absent signs of battle, she still was. She was defenseless, in danger.

Shirou dropped all the groceries bags from his arms, he did not care about the damaged that the food had received at the fall, nor did he cared about the stain that had form on the floor. Shirou's eyes had become cold, focused, hands clenched, posture rigid. There was no time to waste. Saber needed him, now.

He grabbed the flower vase that was near the household entrance, ripped the flowers off, threw them away, closed his eyes, focused inward and called upon his magical energy, the feeling of a hot painful rod being stabbed into his nerves made him tensed. A minute passed and Shirou opened his eyes, a reinforced vase was on his hands.

"It's not going to be much…" Shirou muttered to himself, as he looked at the vase. It wouldn't be much, but it would have to do, at least as a distraction. He only needed time to get Saber out and bring her toward safety. The Command Spell on his hand told him she was still alive, so there was still time.

He stalked forward through the hallway, he turned right, toward the hallway that lead to the Livingroom and his own room and found someone surprising…

"…Tohsaka!?" Shirou asked in surprised. It had been days since he had last seen her, infact, it had been ever since she had declared that she and him would be enemies. And right after that had come the news of her home that had been destroyed and that she had been missing. He had completely _forgotten_ that through all the messes that had occurred.

Shirou focused his eyes on her appearance, she looked…bad.

She still wore the same clothing that she had when she declared herself has his enemy. Her face looked tired, annoyed, angry, dirty. Lips cracked. Her hair stick to her face, it was sweaty, filled with grime. There were bags under her eyes, her blue eyes had lost their shine. Her red coat was ripped and dirty, the same could be said for her school uniform, ripped, muddy, bloodied, burnt. She smelled bad, sweat, dirt, blood, a bad combination. And she looked thinner, not by much, but enough to know that she hadn't eaten in almost the last three days.

"Hello Emiya-kun." Rin said, her tone flat, cold, unemotional. It was very uncharacteristic of her and Shirou tensed at that.

"You should really take care of your Servant."

A smile stretched on her face after she said those words, it was a dangerous smile.

"Tohsaka…are you ok—?" Shirou question of concerned had been interrupted. The reinforced vase on his hands had been knocked away by a white short sword, his knees had been kicked out, he fell forward and someone grabbed his copper hair, pulled him back roughly and placed the same with blade in his throat as he was forced to kneel. His arms flayed, hands desperately tried to push his attacker away with no veil. Shirou with gritted teeth, wide eyes, looked at his attacker and saw Archer with a look of contempt directed at him.

Shirou was forced to look at Rin when Archer roughly tilted his head towards the girl. Rin looked at the scene with tired blue eyes, she bowed her head, placed her hands on her hips, a sigh escaped her lips and she looked up at Shirou. This time her blue eyes had gained some of that lost energy, and she looked more spirited and angry. She stalked toward Shirou, invaded his personal space, Shirou's face cringed slightly but no words came from him, as he was subjected to Rin's glare.

"I will only ask once Emiya-kun, _where is Sakura?_ "

* * *

 **Author Notes**

 **Yo what's up? It's been a while eh? So I had to take the entirety of May free from story stuff as I was in the middle of my college finales. And let me tell you that it was infuriating considering that I had to deal with a team project with members that did not help or wanted to take control of everything because they felt entitled or something. It was not pretty.**

 **Good thing is that I passed the class with A, which I feel pretty proud about.**

 **Anyway unto the chapter, I feel like I'm finally getting onto plot and finally letting go of all the demonstrations and expositions about our fearless villains. I feel satisfied with this, there are a couple of hints here and there about a couple of things.**

 **And that's all folk, please Review or PM me.**

 **Hope you enjoy and until next time.**


	6. Pig Tailed Demon Tales

**Author Notes**

 **Hey there, new chapter here. Just so you, my computer is in the verge of dying and I wanted to release this before anything could happen. Anyway so if you spot any grammar mistake let me know because I'll fix it later, yes later. Right now I'm so tense that I bet that I'm stiff as wood or whatever the hell I'm talking about, my God I really need some rest. Anyway, here's some advancement to the plot.**

 **Also, sorry if you got an update the other day but didn't see any new update. Had accidentally send in the new chapter. But its here now.**

 **hyperomegasonic26: Who knows buddy, we'll figure that out in the future. But yeah your right, the bad guys are playing pretty dirty here huh?**

 **talesfanjmf: Hope it's as interesting as you had hoped, tried my best here to make it seem as infuriating and cool as possible.**

 **matrience: Your welcome.**

: **Really now, its probably all the mystery around...who knows, hm?**

 **Synndraval: Trying my best here to keep a mystery. That was the greatness of reading the Visual Novel originally, you just didn't know who was the hero and had to guess.**

 **Guest: Thanks**

 **Anyway hope, you enjoy. Because right now I'm going to get some rest .**

* * *

 _Rin's ears rang._

 _The ring was a noised that only served to annoy and irritate her further._

 _Her head was spinning._

 _Her vision was blurry._

 _She looked back, the Tohsaka household, the heirloom left by her ancestors, it was a complete mess._

 _Enemies, the white armored mages, seven of them, the same amount of the ones who had attacked her on her home, they surrounded her and Archer._

 _An ambush, it was an ambush._

 _Archer grabbed her, tried to escape, he said something, but the way her ears rang…it just would not let her hear the words._

 _The enemy._

 _The white mages._

 _They followed them, attacked them, they didn't let up._

 _And..._

 _Her body hurt, her body hurt, her body hurt, **her body hurt—**_

 **.**

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Fifth Holy Grail War, Day Six.

The memories faded, like mist, it dissipated away to reveal her dirty and humiliated self. Her bloody, ripped, dirty cloth served as a reminder of all the trouble she had in the last few days.

Hands on her hips, she sighed tiredly. Rin was tired of the events that had passed in the last three days, tired from being pursued like some dog, tired of the feeling of humiliation that would not disappeared. And she was most definitely tired over the events that occurred now before her.

Shirou Emiya struggled against the hold of her Servant, Archer. The golden-brown eyes of the Master of Saber stared up at her in confusion, apprehension, frustration. Her eyes gained a cold and hard edge to them as she stared back at the boy before her. She took her first step toward her enemy, then a second, then a third.

Rin had warned him, that she and he would be enemies in this War.

She got her face close to his, Rin noticed his cringe. She guessed that it had to be the bad odor that she exuded. And she could've not blamed him for it, the last few days had been nothing but unpleasant. She had been forced to go through some very disgusting, unsanitary and repugnant places.

Her dry lips parted.

"I will only ask once Emiya-kun, _where is Sakura?_ "

Rin's question had been simple, and she had delivered them as such. Her words slipped out without much emotion, the tiredness, the underlying threat, it was all evident.

Shirou's eyes widened at the question, a clear sign that her tone had been intimidating.

"What!?" Shirou shouted in surprise, shock, outrage. His teeth grinded as he gave Rin a heated look, the muscle in his jaws clenched, body tensed considerably. Shirou struggled against Archer's hold, he cared not for the blade that was near his throat nor did he care for how much his arms hurt over the steel like grip.

Rin's eyes widened at Shirou's violent response and futile struggle. Rin noticed, after careful consideration, that she had been wrong in her assessment of the copper-hair young man. He had not been intimidated at all. Worry, anger, desperation, that was what she saw on Shirou's face, on his heated eyes.

"You've heard me, so where is she?" She repeated the question once more, even though it went against her threat. She gave the boy on more chance, for she was tired and humiliated. If Shirou did not answer, the she...

"No! No, what the hell do you mean where is she!? She should be in the hospital! She was there!" Shirou rambled on, desperation laced in every word. His teeth were clenched, his face set into one of fury and worry.

"Oh really?" Rin's eyes narrowed into slit, her patience had been thin before, but now it was clear that she would've snapped at any given moment.

"Yes! But—but that doesn't matter! We need to go after Sakura!" Shirou stuttered slightly, his struggle did not cease. His worry only doubled over as his thoughts delve deeper into what the implications of Sakura's disappearance could've meant.

"No Emiya-kun, it. Does. Matter. Because we saw you taking Sakura away from the hospital! And don't deny it!" Rin said, her tone hard and harsh, yet a firmness that made it clear that her words and reasoned could not be neglected. Shirou's eyes widened at the revelation.

"What…?"

 **.**

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 _"She's not here." Rin stated, her tone flat. She looked around the hospital room, the very same hospital room that the nurse she had used hypnosis on to get in without much trouble told her the girl she looked for should've been in._

 _She had come to the hospital, tired, sleepy, hungry and dirty, with the motivation to make sure that her classmates weren't far too injured. And the most selfish one, to visit Sakura, the one girl she had always made it her duty to make sure she was fine every once in a while. And she knew 'why' they all had been put on the hospital. That golden light was a clear sign of a battle between Servants._

 _And if Archer was correct with his guessed, then that had been Shirou and Saber off by the school. She would've come toward the hospital and visited her classmates yesterday, but…_

 _…she had been caught by surprise and had been kept quite busy._

 _Still, she had managed to survive, and had made it her objective to go and checkout the hospital first opportunity she had. And more importantly, she would've seen Sakura._

 _And yet the room held no Sakura Matou, an empty bed on the corner near the room's window with whatever medical equipment that should've been plugged into her thrown carelessly on the bed or floor. Toward her left were the other patients of the room that were fast asleep._

 _There was a shimmered in the air on Rin's left, Archer appeared, posture straight._

 _"Sakura Matou is part of one of the three great families. She may have been a target from our annoying pursuers. They already targeted you, classifying you as this 'Pillar'." Archer said, his voice calm yet distant, gray steel eyes analyzed the bed before him. He paid no mind to Rin when he said those words, though he was aware of how tightly the girl had clenched her hands and how her shoulder shook._

 _"Those bastards are really starting to piss me off." Rin said, her voice brimmed out with barely contained irritation._

 _"Huh…I had thought that you were already piss off two days ago, Rin." Archer quipped, the red knight could've not resisted the urge to mock his Master. Though he had other motives for such quip. He turned his eyes toward his Master and noted the glare that she had given him. A chuckle escaped him, he had succeeded it seemed._

 _"You're an asshole."_

 _"How very cruel of you Rin, there's really no need for such hurtful words." His wry chuckled stopped abruptly as he looked at Rin seriously. "It hasn't been that long since she had been move."_

 _"What!?"_

 _"Yes, if I had to estimate a guess…I would say that it has barely even been ten minutes. Most probably while you were checking on those three girls."_

 _"Damn it, Archer! Why didn't you say anything!?" Rin asked in anger, her tired outlook ceased to present a more lively and angry Rin Tohsaka. Archer turned away from Rin and looked at the window to his right._

 _"I had to make sure that there was no trap set and decided to let our enemy conjured up a sense of safety." Archer said simply. "More importantly is that fact that we are in no condition to enter another battle. Not after what happened yesterday and how annoying this morning had been."_

 _Rin clicked her tongue in annoyance and looked away. But it was clear that she understood clearly his words. She turned back towards him and looked at him with a serious expression. Even if they were in not any condition to fight, she could not bring let the enemy mages get their hold over Sakura._

 _Not her._

 _"Archer…"_

 _"Yes, I know Rin. Whoever took Matou Sakura did so without much of a struggle or any sign of battle. I would even dare say that she went willingly with her captors…" Archer trailed off as he pointed at the window. Rin follow his gaze, her eyes widened, lips parted slightly. "And was in quite the hurry to leave, as whoever it was that came here left the window ajar. Quite the sloppy job if you ask me."_

 _It was true, the window hadn't been close fully. A chilly air had enter the room, yet Rin did not acknowledged the cold air around her skin. No, the cold air was the least of her concerns because of the hot righteous fury that had enveloped her entire body like a blanket. With gritted teeth, fiery blue eyes, hands that shook out of uncontrollable anger, her lips parted—_

 _"Archer…I hate them." Rin's words were subdued, cold and lack much emotion. It was an anticlimactic reaction for how much anger and irritation Rin exuded. Yet those words held far more weight than had she simply let out a furious roar, for those words held nothing but the weight of her anger and determination. Archer understood this quite clearly._

 _Rin moved, her steps were hard, precise, full of a calm fury. She walked, passed Archer without much regard for him, made it to the slightly opened window, retched it opened and jumped out. Archer's eyes widened at the reckless display and he took off after her._

 _Rin landed on one of the lower rooftops of the hospital, her legs had been reinforced thanks to her magical circuits, she landed on the floor with a hard thud, the floor beneath her cracked and yet her legs remained sturdy and firmed. The magical energy that had been poured through her legs had been filled with frightening precision and full on hot anger. There wasn't even a single hint of pain on her face as she stood up and walked toward the edge._

 _She stood on the building's edge, not a care if anyone saw her nor a care for if there were a trap. Her blue eyes looked down below, toward the ambulances that either left or arrived, toward the people that walked calmly or she stared off into the distance until her eyes saw no more. Sharp blue eyes moved left and right, she paid no mind nor heed to Archer who landed behind her. Her teeth grinded as frustration build up more and more._

 _"Where is she…?" Rin asked quietly._

 _"Rin! To your left, near the bus, Matou Sakura is being taken toward the alleyway on their right. She's being escorted by a single man down on the ground and four of our old friends are up on the roof." Archer barked out his direction, his steel gray eyes settled on their target far away._

 _Rin's head swiveled toward where Archer directed her, her blue eyes focused on the purple hair with the red ribbon. Rin noticed that Sakura walked away willingly alongside her 'captor', her steps a little bit uneven, as if disoriented. And much like Archer had said, four of those Mage followed them. Rin gritted her teeth at that. She looked at Sakura's 'captor', he was a young man, copper color hair, dressed in white suit and…_

 _Her anger, fury, frustration and irritation suddenly dispersed into the wind when she noticed who 'escorted' Sakura._

 _"Emiya-kun…?" Rin asked in bewilderment, she saw the man's face when he turned to look at the side, as he made sure no one had followed him._

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.

.

"That isn't right…!?" Shirou said, disbelief colored in his voice, eyes narrowed as he looked at Rin. "I wasn't at the hospital today…I was doing shopping...!"

Shirou cut himself off and looked somewhat uncertain over his next words. This did not escaped Rin's eyes.

"Oh, are you hiding something Emiya-kun? Come on, let's hear it. Don't make me order Archer do something that we might regret." Rin said dangerously, yet she had no intention to follow through with her threat. Already she felt that Shirou wasn't the one at fault, and her reasons started to have less merit at Shirou's continued genuine reactions. And the lack of Sakura being in the house was another sign. From what she knew and had seen of the boy, he held no other place that wasn't his home to where he could've hidden Sakura.

But she would let him go just yet.

"..." Shirou did not answered at first, his head looked off to the side as if he weighted his answer for a correct or stupid one. Rin lips twitched at that.

"Well?"

"I was talking with Illya…!" Shirou finally answered, his eyes looked straight at Rin. There was a moment of silenced.

"What!?" Rin's tired look gave away and changed to one of shocked. She had not expected that, not all. Shirou blinked a couple of times at the reaction.

"I-I went to the store to stock up in food since I was running low…and well, I would've liked to go to the hospital and see how everyone's was doing bu—!"

"Just stop for a second and back up…did you just say that you talked with Illya? You mean Illyasviel von Einzbern? The Master of Berserker!?" Rin asked said in complete bewilderment. Just how dense could've Shirou be? How could he possibly have went off and had met with Berserker's Master? Did he not realized how dangerous and stupid that was!? With sharp eyes she glared dangerously at Shirou, though the coldness and enmity that she had emitted earlier had become more subdued.

"Uh…yeah, wait, does that mean you believe me?" Shirou asked carefully.

"I…no, I don't believe you completely…but I just can't find any excuse to deny you would be more than likely be doing exactly 'that', meeting with an enemy Master and not just any enemy Master…but Berserker's! God that's so dumb…" Rin muttered to herself the last bit angrily, right hand pinched the bridged of her nose, left hand on her hip and she shook her head in disbelief. The situation had not gone like she had expected really, she had thought she would've come in and intimidated Shirou and be done with it. And probably hope for a bath, some food and a place to sleep.

"H-Hey she was the one who came to me okay and—!" Shirou tried to justify himself, a little annoyed over all the accusation, but was interrupted by Rin once more.

"Wait! You said that you went out to shop? But Saber over there is unconscious…! Oh come on! Emiya-kun how dumb can you be!? You can't go anywhere without your servant! Do you want to get killed? I told you to not be so trusting! Geez, you sure are incredibly hopeless, you know that right!? I would've thought you learned just how dangerous this whole ritual is by now! I mean didn't you fight yesterday against a Servant or something!? You—!"

Rin rambled on as she merciless berated on Shirou's choices over the last few days. It was clear for Archer what she was doing and let her vent her frustrations. The Servant in Red had already made his assessment over the situation, but had decided to remain silent to let things play themselves out.

"Tohsaka…Tohsaka? Tohsaka!" Shirou tried to call out, but was ignored as the girl continued on her rant. Shirou noticed that the blade that was held on his throat had disappeared, the iron-like hold that had nearly ripped his arms off when he had been held up for his 'interrogation' had disappeared and Shirou fell forward. He put out his arms to break his fall, winced and fell forward anyway, his head bounced off the floor.

Shirou shook his head in pain, looked back and glare angrily at the red Servant. Archer just ignored him, crossed his arms and disappeared back into his spirit form. Shirou shook his head, stood up, rubbed his arm softly and turned towards Rin who had stopped her rant to look at Shirou with a confuse look.

"Oh? Emiya-kun, why are you free? And where's Archer?" Rin said as she looked around confused, then she looked directly at Shirou. "Hey, I'm not done questioning you!"

"Huh, what is that supposed to mean!?" Shirou asked in bewilderment, he looked at Rin with raised eyebrows, wide eyes and a slight cringe on his lips.

"What do you think? I still have questions to ask you." Rin said with pursed lips, arms crossed, looked at another direction sharply. Her head then snapped to him as she realized something. "Emiya-kun, since when has Saber been like that?"

"Saber…?" Shirou asked with a raised brow.

"Yes, yes, just answer the question Emiya-kun. Depending on your answer, I'll eliminate you from my list of suspect…or well, we can just go with my original intention." Rin said, the last part said with a rather cold, tight smile and narrowed intended to intimidate Shirou, to see if she could've thrown him off and if that made him answer her truthfully.

Shirou blinked at the Rin's changed from heated rant to cold sharp magus.

"She…she has been like that since yesterday, she fell unconscious after she had used her Noble Phantasm." Shirou answered slowly and truthfully.

"…" Rin stayed silent as she let the words played over her mind. Moments later her face flushed slightly. A sigh escaped her and her shoulder sagged as whatever fire or motivation that had energized her had been put out. She swayed a little as her exhaustion took its hold. "Then, I guess that you weren't the one that had taken Sakura away. Whoever it was probably used magecraft to change his face."

"I already told you that Tohsaka. But that doesn't matter, let's go! We need to go and find Sakura!" Shirou said with urgency, he turned around ready to go down the hall, he stopped when he heard Rin's resigned sigh. Shirou turned towards her in confusion.

"We can't…" Rin said tiredly, her body slumped further down.

"Uh…? What do you mean we can't? Sakura could be in danger! O-Or…or…!" Shirou stuttered, his word trailed off, his eyes widened, as he realized the danger she could've been. Rin paid no mind to him as she swayed slightly left and right.

"…we're too tired…I can't really keep on fighting…I need some…" Rin said slowly, her words had become slurred, as she fell backwards.

"Tohsaka!" Shirou screamed, he lunged forward, he put a great deal of strength was put into his left foot and his arms were spread forward. He caught her, his arms embraced her torso, her tattered school uniform wrinkled underneath the strength he put into them.

The two fell down toward the floor, Shirou managed to maneuver his body so that he would take the brunt of the fall. A grunt escaped him and a winced was clear on his face, the hold that Archer had over his arm still hurt. He looked down at his chest and saw Rin's tired blue eyes stared back at his golden-brown ones. A blush crept up at the rather intense look.

"Hey, Emiya-kun, mind taking me to the bathroom…? I'm pretty dirty and…I really need a bath."

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 _How many days had passed?_

 _How many days had passed since her home had been left in tatters?_

 _Two?_

 _It felt as if six days had passed to her._

 _Time had become somewhat of a fickle matter to keep track off after a while._

 _One moment the sun had been up above in the blue cloud-free sky, the next the sun had set and the sky was a colored orange._

 _She had come to appreciate these kinds of views anytime she got a moments rest._

 _Two days may not have been that much of a long time, but for all the troubles she had been force into, it felt like an eternity to her._

 _And it was their fault._

 _Those white armored mages._

 _She had prepared for ten years for the ritual known as the Holy Grail War, she had been ready for it, the pride of her family line depended on it._

 _And her very pride as magus._

 _For she wanted victory, she really didn't care all that much about the wish-granting machine known as the Holy Grail._

 _She knew it would've not been easy, nothing ever was._

 _But she had not expected the infuriating opposition that she got._

 _And above all else was the humiliation._

 _She had been forced to run, to hide, to lick her wounds._

 _Her enemy, they were far more fearsome and coordinated than the ones that had ambushed her on her home._

 _Seven of them, the very same that had attacked her and Archer when they escaped the explosion that went off in her home._

 _Those seven remained determined to make the last two days be nothing but a living hell for her._

 _Their tactics forced Archer to step back and protect her._

 _Their numbers were perfect to protect each other and commence a counterattack._

 _Their weapons were far more durable, more powerful and issue to defend against most Archer's attack._

 _The enemy cornered them into populated areas, where they would've forced her and Archer not to use their most powerful weapons to avoid the loss of innocent life._

 _So they were forced to play their games._

 _She and Archer were both pushed back little by little, the attacks the enemy dealt were meant to weaken them, as they understood that direct combat was not an option._

 _Then there was a moment of rest, if only by two hours._

 _It was if that golden light had called everyone's attention...which was stupid to say, because it did in fact called for everyone's attention._

 _And still, she could not really forget that golden light that split the clouds up above, no matter how tired, hurt or angry she was._

 _A Noble Phantasm, a powerful one at that could been seen all the way from Shinto._

 _"That Noble Phantasm…yes, I see. How very reckless of you to use it in such blatant display, Saber."_

 _Archer had muttered to himself as they stood on top of a building, a moments rest after they had escaped the enemies grasp._

 _Yet, she could've not believed that someone like Shirou had summoned such a powerful Servant._

 _She had to admit, she was rather jealous._

 _Not a while later, her armor enemies had come in once more._

 _God, these guys were even more annoying than Kirei Kotomine._

 _"Guh…"_

 _She groaned, she looked down at her sides, a gash was present, it's sting made her hiss._

 _She stood there, against the dirty and damp walls of the sewers of Fuyuki._

 _Ah, yes a moment of rest after a battle that annoyed and tired her out._

 _This time they had managed to injure three of the enemies and forced them to retreat, this crippled the enemy's tactics and battle prowess._

 _Yet even though they had managed to bypass the enemies well calculated and near impenetrable defense, she still felt defeated._

 _She was sweaty, dirty, hurt and tired._

 _All she wanted was to rest._

 _Her eyes closed, her mind drifted off, sweet oblivion arms were almost closed to ensnare her into a tight embrace._

 _"Rin! An enemy Servant is heading our way!"_

 _The desperate cry from Archer woke her up, her tiredness and humiliated state mattered very little as a feeling of death wrapped itself around her._

 _She stood up, her body rigid, her eyes wide and prepared with her Servant, Archer by her side._

 _The two waited for the enemy that surpassed those of the armor mages to come, for the battle that would place their lives on the line._

 _A white flash of powerful magical energy rocked their world._

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Rin's eyes snapped open, the memories from yesterday's events faded away slowly and left a rather bitter taste on her mouth. She sighed in discontent, her naked body sank further down into the bathtub in Shirou's home. The water around her body felt like heaven, one great pleasure that she had missed in the last few days. She sank further into the tub, it left about half her face of her face submerge into the water.

Her dark hair was down, traces of foam from the shampoo she had used was still in her hair. There were a couple of small towels and sponges on the tub or on the floor by the side that had escaped her grasped, they had been used roughly and merciless to clean off the grime, sweat and any remnant of humiliation off her body. Some of those sponges had become frail from the rough scrubbed that she had performed on her body.

Her eyelids were heavy, her head nodded off several times once more as her tired body almost gave out. She raised herself into a straighter sitting position.

"Mou…I think I've been here for who knows how long…" Rin said with a slight slurred, she may had rest a little while on her bath, but it still hadn't been enough to get her energy back up to full.

She stood up from the tub, water dripped off from her naked body. She raised her right leg, passed over the edges of the tub and placed over the bathrooms floor. She got out of the tub, stumbled, nearly fell, she placed her left arm toward the wall near her and prevented any injury.

A sigh escaped her lips, she noted she had done that quite a few times now, but she was more than happy to have prevented the fall. She fully got out of the tub, reached for the towel and proceeded to dry off her body.

A few minutes passed and Rin Tohsaka came out of the bathroom, refreshed, relaxed and more importantly 'cleaned'. She slid the bathroom's door close and looked down at herself.

Rin was dressed in a dark blue, long-sleeve shirt, it belonged to Shirou, the shirt was slightly loose on her body, which for her was fine as she lacked any underclothing to cover her modesty. For her lower body she had some short pants, black in color. Even though it wouldn't have been her first choice of clothing, it would make do.

"Hmm…?" Rin hummed, she sniffed the air, the sweet and delicious smell of food infiltrated her nostrils. Her stomach growled, days without any food made her crave for the delicious treat. She nodded to herself and followed the smell.

She walked the household's halls, turned, slid the Livingroom's door open and stepped in. Her blue eyes noticed the food on the table, her eyes turned to look at Shirou who placed the final touches for the dinner. Shirou nodded to himself, looked up and blinked when he noticed her.

"Hey Tohsaka, you took a while, you okay?" Shirou asked in concern, Rin just waved him off and sat down on the dinner table. Usually she would've have some kind of sassy comment, but the delicious food had captivated her attention. She would have to give it to him, he knew how to cook some very beautiful looking food, or maybe that was just hunger that made her think like that.

"Hmm, don't worry so much, I just lost track of time a little."

"Well, while you were taking your bath, I thought it was a good idea to start up cooking dinner. It's already pass seven." Shirou said casually and sat down on the opposite side of the table. Rin's eyes widened in shock.

"What…!? Why didn't you warn me!? Don't you know how unhealthy it is for someone to be in the water for so long!?" Rin said, her frustration clear, voice slightly higher pitch. Her blue eyes were sharp, arms crossed, tight smile, her head shook in disappointment. The effect was immediate.

"H-H-Hey—!" Shirou yelled out in outrage, Rin's word had cut through him.

Not a moment later, the two ate in silence. Both appreciated this silence and meal, Rin a little bit more than Shirou, as she ate with gusto. Both Masters reflected over the events that had transpired separately.

Shirou looked up at Rin, his eyes were focused on Rin on her entirety. He took noticed of how casual she looked, of how some pieces of food slipped through her lips, how she moaned as the food filled her empty stomach. Shirou blinked and looked at the scene in bewilderment and admiration, his eyes wide as the rare sight of Rin to not be in her proper 'perfect student' like figure. It was a sight that he would treasured for a long time.

Rin noticed his stare.

"H-Hey, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

"Huh…" Shirou blinked at the questions, he pulled himself back, averted his eyes and blushed in embarrassment.

"Why are you looking away?" Rin asked, she munched the last bit of food that was left, push away the plates of food and looked at Shirou with a raised eyebrow. A feeling of self-consciousness mixed with a past tension welled up deep in her.

"I…uh…I just didn't expect for you to eat like that…" Shirou mumbled slightly.

"Like what?" Rin asked, her eyes narrowed slightly as a dangerous and tense atmosphere filled the air.

"Uh…" Shirou chose not to respond. Unfortunately for him, silence was not an option here.

"I see what is going on here, you think that I'm eating like a pig aren't you!?" Rin accused, the Master of Archer suddenly got defensive and she slammed both fist onto the table. The furniture rattled violently, Shirou jumped back as he stare at Rin with wide eyes.

"What!?"

"Humph, I can't believe you were thinking such a thing. It isn't my fault that I got a little over excited about the food, I mean, it's been a while since I had any kind food. And now I have some guy who can't even take care of his Servant properly judge me? As if!" Rin ranted as she turned her head off to the side and crossed her arms. "I would've gone to my own home right away, but the outside is a little dangerous right about now and my home is in tatters. So sorry, you'll have to do deal with me at least until tomorrow."

Rin's words were harsh and cut deep, in any other circumstance, Shirou would've been more than annoyed with what was said. But the copper-hair teen had caught on her tiredness and tense face, from the look of his face he understood what the problem was. A sigh escaped him as a blush form on his face.

Rin turned too looked back at Shirou, noticed the blush and looked in bewilderment at him. Shirou just looked off to the side, cleared his throat and mumbled something.

"What?" Rin snapped, Shirou jumped slightly, clear his throat again and looked at her firmly on the eyes.

"I said that you look a little…cute eating like that." Shirou said, his voice firm, but the blush on his cheeks and how his ears burned showed his embarrassment. Rin blinked a couple of times as her face slowly turned red.

"W-W-W-What is that supposed to mean!? Y-You can't say stuff like that! It's embarrassing! I…I mean it's not appropriate…"

"Well it's the truth…and I'll never forget how totally precious it was to catch Tohsaka the 'perfect student' eating like that." Shirou said, a little bit of sarcasm sipped into his voice as he looked at Rin with a raised brow. Rin on the other hand turned red even further, blue eyes wide as the plates from which she ate.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…I think I'll go and clean the plates." Shirou said awkwardly, he scratched the back of his head, stood up, picked the plates up and left toward the kitchen.

Rin stayed silent, her blue eyes followed him all the way.

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"…and that's about all that happened yesterday." Shirou said, as he finished recounting the events from yesterday. He had cleaned all the dishes a while ago and his hands still gave of the sweet smell of soap Rin noted.

"So Shinji is a Master and is allied with those mages. And they have also classify you as a ' _Pillar,_ hm.'" Rin said after a moment, arms crossed, eyes slightly narrow as she took in the information. "This is rather worrying. The enemy is trying really hard to win this War. Though, fortunately for us if Shinji really did screw up so bad to make those guys mad at him then it means that there will be some internal fighting."

"Hrm, yeah…"

"Still what I want to know what this _'Pillars'_ are, or more accurately, who are given such designation? What makes someone qualify as a _'Pillar'_? Hmm, for now the theory I had before this was that only those who were of the three great families were targeted. But that theory has been shot down, I guess they are targeting the Masters of the Holy Grail. That makes much more sense." Rin analyzed as she looked off to the side. Shirou looked at Rin and cleared his throat.

"Tohsaka, I got a question for you."

"Hmm? What is it Emiya-Kun?"

"It's just, I'm just confuse over the whole…'me' taking Sakura away situation. Why didn't you just go after her? You had Archer with you, why not go after them and rescued Sakura?" Shirou asked.

"Uh? Didn't you hear what I said before? Archer and I were already exhausted from fighting nonstop. And anyway, getting into a new battle against those mages and some other Servant doesn't seem like such a smart move, hmm?" Rin asked rhetorically, with a small sarcastic smile on her face. Shirou nodded in agreement with her words, but stopped when he noted something strange in what Rin had said.

"Wait, you said Servant? The one who took Sakura had a Servant!?" Shirou asked, disbelief clear on his voice. Rin shook her head in uncertainty, left elbow on the table as she rested chin on the palm of her hand.

"No…maybe...well I really don't know. Archer and I stayed away trying to get a look over what was happening. One moment the fake you and Sakura turned toward an alleyway with four of those mages up in the roof following them. The next a Servant suddenly appears. I don't know what happened but when we got into the alleyway, all we saw was signs of battle and a lot of blood. But not any evidence over who won or survived."

Rin's words were grim and Shirou could've not helped but grit his teeth in anger. Rin noted the coper-hair teen's expression before her, she sign and looked away. Shirou then turned his eyes towards her, his anger dissipated away into curiosity.

"Tohsaka…you said that you and Archer were exhausted, but I don't get why? Did you get into a fight against a Servant?" Shirou questioned. Rin who looked off to the side in irritation, arms crossed, lips pursed.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 _Her ears rang. Just how many times her ears had rang in the last few days? That was certainly not healthy, it occurred quite a couple of times by now. If it happened once more she could bet that she would have damaged hearing._

 _Rin shook her head, her dizzy head readjusted itself once more and she stare around. She was on the sewer area underneath the Shinto district of Fuyuki, the dirty damp walls of the sewer surrounded her, they only allow for one to move forward or backward as the entryway to the passage was behind her and the exist upfront. She stared up ahead and noticed the cloud of dust that flowed around after the surprise attack._

 _Her Sevant, Archer, stood in front of her protectively, as always. She had gotten used to the sight of Archer's armor back in the last few days, always when trapped in ambush he would always stand there as her wall. But still, even a wall could be chipped off and damage if attack constantly, and it was quite clear as Archer's armor was cracked and cloak ripped._

 _Rin got to her knees, her drained strength only managed that, still she was defiant to the end._

 _Even with the feeling of dread and death that hugged her like the sweet tender embrace of a mother. Her eyes passed over the protective stance of her Servant and saw the enemy, the cause for their current troubles. A white robe man, no, Servant, it was the only correct designation to give to such a being who held so much power. His cloth, made from some very fine fibers, a cape that flung down his back, or was it a cape? In his left hand was a big black staff, held casually. He stood barely thirty feet away from them._

 _A smile could've been seen underneath the Servant's hood, a clear sign of who had created the cloaks that those mages wore._

 _It also seemed like it was their turn to fight against a Servant, not even three hours after that Noble Phantasm had been unleashed._

 _"Ah, I see, I see. You have quite agile body there. I must admit, even though such a thing was to be expected, to see it up-close can give you a much clearer perspective."_

 _The words that the Servant, Caster as Rin had already categorized him due to his appearance ad earlier attack, were said simply and in good-nature. Yet Rin couldn't help but grit her teeth and glared as a smoke and a wall off to the side crumbled to dust._

 _"Humph. Then I hope you enjoyed the show, Caster. I was getting tired of fighting off your grunts. Now that you finally showed your face..." Archer spoke calmly, his posture straight, his hands opened and his trusty twin swords, Kanshou by his right and Bakuya by his left, appeared. "The real fight can begin."_

 _"Heh, I guess that for someone such as yourself, you would find such battle's rather annoying, but please, do give my friend's companions some praise. After all by how you look, well, I may have to say that those 'grunts' have been doing a fine job at battling you." Caster said in good-humor, his posture relax even by the tense atmosphere that was present. Rin got to her feet, her knees shook slightly and looked at the Caster._

 _"You said, friend, so this friend of yours is your Master?" Rin questioned, her face set into a heated frown._

 _"Master you say...? Yes, I guess you could call her that." Caster responded calmly, he shrugged slightly._

 _"So it wouldn't be wrong to say that this Master of yours is the Director, huh? I'm going to have to say, that whoever the Master is, be it another person or this Director, they are very determine to win the Holy Grail War." Rin continued, her intentions to fished for information was apparent to the Caster when his lips turned up into an amuse smile._

 _"I really don't think she would enjoy me giving so much information...so sorry for not answering." Caster apologized, he shrugged his shoulders guiltily. "But I do think I can say this, why not give up? It is easier for you and us. What do you have to lose? Well...except for the War, but I can promise you that by giving up, you won't regret it. In fact, would dare say that you would have far more to win than what you got to loose. So how about it?"_

 _"Are you just going to stand there and keep on running your mouth? My, how annoying. I would thought that a Caster such as yourself would've known to only speak when casting a spell." Archer snapped with a sarcastic drawl as he stayed firmly in place and stared up at the enemy, Rin's Servant had recognized that the time to have fished for information had reached its conclusion, it was time to do battle._

 _"You really think that I'm just going to give up and let you people do whatever it is you want with me? With whatever the hell being a 'Pillar' even means? No thank you, in fact, why don't we beat whatever information you got out of you." Rin said as she fired up her Magic Crest on her left arm and glared at her opponent. Caster just shrugged once more._

 _"My, my, it seems that the reconnaissance's team couldn't help but let their tongue loose huh? I wonder, how did you know of this place? Did they tell you as well?" Caster questioned, Rin looked at the white robe man with a confuse look for a second, then it settle back into a frown, though there was a glint in her eyes over the slip of information. Caster noticed this and let out a chuckle. "Oops, seems like I myself must learn when to hold my tongue. No matter, even if it was a mistake, I cannot allow you to go on further."_

 _"Archer, beat him down!" Rin order with clenched fist, sharp eyes._

 _There was a beat of silence._

 _Archer darted off like a bullet, his twin blades by his side. One moment he was before Rin the next he was in front of Caster, who looked up at the red Servant with a smile. Archer slashed down with both blades, the blow that would be deliver would've been powerful enough to cut down a man into four pieces._

 _Yet Caster defended easily, he raised his black staff and Archer's sword came to a stop when they met the black wood. Caster's lips moved quickly and a large gust of wind, encircled both him and Archer like a typhoon. Rin covered her eyes as the wind had gather far too quickly, had caught her off guard and it hurt to keep her eyes opened fully._

 _The Servant of the Bow, noticed the spell, jumped back, landed swiftly on the sewer floors and put both blades upfront in a cross-shape. The typhoon around Caster spun faster and faster, then like a waterfall it was unleashed forward._

 _Archer's steel gray eyes widened at the sight, the powerful spell would've hurled him off toward the far end of the passage that he and Rin were and would most likely cause Rin injuries. Injuries that should not be sustained if an ambush came and caught them off guard. His swords disappeared from his grasp, his feet kicked off the ground and he went for Rin._

 _Rin looked surprise at the powerful spell and even more surprise at the shape of her Servant when he flew by her, grabbed her by the waist and carried her away from the winds as it pursued them. The duo made it to the end of the sewer passage, passed it, noticed that there was more space and four entry ways that toward different sections of the sewers. Archer jumped to the sides with gritted teeth, let the wind passed him, the spell was powerful one, as his body almost felt like it was about to get ripped apart._

 _The wind smashed against one of the entryways and wall._

 _A cloud of debris and dust covered the area, multiples cough erupted from Rin as the dust infiltrated into her lungs. Archer remained fast alert. The wind still remained in effect as it carried the dust around and blinded the two._

 _Archer grunted in annoyance, then pushed Rin down toward the floor roughly slashed backward and cut down four wooden tentacles thick as a forearm that had reached to grabbed and retrieved Rin. The Master of Archer looked up, annoyed and frustrated over the abuse and noted three of those wooden tentacles that slithered around the ground and for her. Rin put her left arm forward, index finger pointed like a gun._

 _"Gandr!" Rin chanted, and let out volley of black bullet-like curses that rushed down toward the offending wood and smashed them down to pieces. A smirk appeared on her face has her Gandr had finally done something and had not been stopped by some kind of cloth or shield that could resist it._

 _But it was not over just yet, as more of the wooden appendages appeared. They surrounded them through the smoke, curved and spear down on the two. Archer slashed as the wooden tentacles as they attack with his twin swords, two of them wrapped around Archer's leg, pulled and made him loose his balance. But he flipped back, slashed the wooden tentacles off._

 _Unfortunately, that lapsed of balance and concentration cost him as the other wooden appendages spear themselves into Archer's right bicep, shoulder, left side of his torso and thigh. Archer grunted in annoyance, as the attack prevented him much movement._

 _A volley of black curses crashed against Archer, destroyed the wooden spears and free the red Servant. Archer looked slightly to his back, saw Rin with all her left five fingers pointed forward as she shot down the wooden tentacles down in annoyance. Blue eyes met gray ones._

 _"Archer stop screwing around! I can't keep saving your butt anytime you get into trouble!" Rin said with gritted teeth, she continued her attack. She looked like an automatic firing machine as she shot down all the slithering wooden appendages._

 _"Ah...! How annoying, now I'm going to be indebted to you for that aren't I? Geez, it's so embarrassing to be saved from something like that." Archer commented, his usual sarcastic wit present even though blood ooze from his open wounds._

 _"You can bet your life on it!" Rin said with a slight smirk._

 _Suddenly Archer grabbed Rin with his left arm, who yelped out in surprise, holstered her up into his chest with a one arm bridal carry, spun around and deliver a roundhouse kick at the smoke. A surprise grunt was heard and the smoke suddenly was pushed down towards the ground, it let both Archer and Rin see Caster as he flew back and landed on his butt unceremoniously._

 _Caster shook his head and looked at them sheepishly. The wooden tentacles suddenly dropped down on the floor, as the spell that sprung them to life had been cancel._

 _Archer responded fast as he threw Kanshou at the fallen Caster, threw Rin two meters up, who yelled out in outrage and threw Bakuya as well. Then Archer jumped Rin holstered her up into his back, Rin grabbed by dear life into his neck and let out a rant escaped her lips at the constant abuse by her Servant._

 _Both blades flew towards Caster, who responded with a spell and gathered the wind around him to make shield. Both blades clang against each other and flew opposite direction, the blades completely ignored the shield and Caster let out a chuckle as he stood._

 _"Well...you missed." Caster said simply in an easy going tone._

 _Archer responded with an amused grunt, summoned up a bow and faster than Rin's eyes could track, fired ten arrows filled with enough magical energy that could've turned his enemy into a bloody mess. The arrows were aimed at Caster's head, neck, heart, lungs, stomach, hip, groin, knees and left thigh. Their aim were true and sailed through the air at neck breaking speed. If they hit, it would've been a sure kill._

 _Five magical circle appeared around Caster, fire like binds shot out and grabbed each arrow, it stopped them barely two feet away from Caster's body. The binds toss them aside, blue flashes nearly blinded Rin as the arrows detonated against the sewers walls. Pieces of the sewers wall fell, chunks of debris cluttered around and even more dust rose. Some of the other entryways got blocked from the rubble. Caster smiled at them._

 _Kanshou and Bakuya then burst out of the cloud of dust behind Caster, his smile dropped as if he had sensed the attack and realized his mistake. The black short sword went for Caster's neck, while the white sword went for his lower back. Caster then jumped, his body contorted in an inhuman manner to avoid the fatal attack. The blades missed their intended targets, but managed to make up for their miss when they cut Caster right thigh and right side of torso. He fell on the floor, rolled backward slightly and was on his knees. Blood oozed out of his wounds and a hissed escaped his lips._

 _"...ah, I guess I underestimated you a little bit there." Caster said, he chuckled at his mistake, his right hand held onto his injured sides. The blades shattered in midair and disappear. Rin got down from Archer's back, dusted herself and looked at her fallen enemy._

 _"I not really going to lie when I say this, but...seeing you down on the floor like that actually fills me with joy after all the troubles you and those bastards caused us." Rin said harshly, her frustration nor satisfaction at her enemy's 'defeat' not being able to be contained. Archer moved upfront, placed himself in front of Rin protectively once more with his swords back in his hands._

 _"I must say, you fought rather well for a Caster. As a hero, you must of a done a great deal in order to achieve such power. But unfortunately for you, as long as my Master's commands me, you will end up losing. After all, that Master of yours hides in the shadows like a coward, letting 'her' underling do her job." Archer mocked, his words cynical and sarcastic. Rin could tell what his intentions were, bait Caster to make a mistake and capitalized on it to fully end the battle. For now, to get near Caster it was far too dangerous. The Servant had already proved that, all that they needed now was for Caster to make the first move and counterattack._

 _Caster chuckled in amusement._

 _"Ho…? What a sharp tongue you have there. But I would like to remind you that only those who are clearly winning have the right of speech, Counter Guardian." The enemy Servant words were once again said in good-nature, there was not much of a hint of arrogance in his words. They were playful, as if the white robe enemy had talked to an old friend._

 _Rin blinked, the words 'Counter Guardian' had caught her attention. It was something that she had heard before, but had forgotten about it through all the mess she had been force through. She marked that tidbit of information in her mind to question her red Servant later when they beat the enemy down. She turned her eyes toward Archer, saw his expression and narrowed his eyes. Archer looked annoyed, the reveal of his status didn't bode well with him apparently._

 _"Winning you say? Tough words for someone who is on his knees and bleeding." Archer snapped back, his hold over his weapons tightened._

 _"Well..." Caster continued on, still knelt down. The cloud of smoke was still present around ground levels, it reached up to Caster's thigh. "That's about to change."_

 _As those words escaped Caster two blueish-white magical circle appeared beneath him and another in front of him. The one in front of Caster spun around as magical energy was gathered. Archer's body tensed and burst forward with enough speed and forced that Rin flew back and fell down on the floor._

 _Archer was upon Caster in less than an instance, his twin swords above his head and a look of pure rage on his face._

 _"Groooooooah!" Archer let out a loud cry as struck down with all his might. Kanshou and Bakuya swung down like two moon crescent toward Caster._

 _The mage Servant responded to the attack by forming a magical shield around him. Caster showed how much magical energy possessed as the shield took the form a curved-in rectangle. The attack was stopped as the moment the blades touched the shield, Archer flew back as it repelled him back._

 _Rin, who had recovered from Archer's charge, saw the red Servant as he flew back and landed roughly on the floor. She turned toward Caster, noticed that he had prepared a very powerful spell and gritted her teeth. She didn't know what the spell would do, what she knew was that if it came from Caster then it was bad news._

 _They had to stop it, but that shield had been well crafted and made fast, too fast. It held enough magical energy to repel almost all physical attack. A powerful attack would be needed to break through, but from what she had seen of Archer's arsenal of attack, it would be too destructive and it could collapsed the sewer system around them._

 _"Rin!" Archer called out as he got back into his feet, his teeth bare, eyes focused on the enemy Servant. Rin knew what needed to be done, even if it would cost her._

 _"Anfang—!Ich verkünde den Befehl Spell! Geben Sie die Kraft und die Macht, das Hindernis vor diesem zu zerstören, mein Knecht!" Rin chanted, her right hand flashed red and a Command Spell disappeared as the absolute order was given._

 _The order was simple and direct, Archer was to destroy the shield that the enemy had formed._

 _Archer's body moved faster than before, like a red battering-ram he smashed into the shield and roared._

 _"Graaah...! TRACE OVEREDGED!" Archer roar, magical energy soured through the Servant and through his twin swords. Kanshou and Bakuya both changed, they grew into long-swords that were twice the size and covered the blade from the ridge to the edge with feather-like splinters._

 _The shield reacted, tried to push Archer away once more...and failed as Archer shattered the shield as if it was glass._

 _Caster looked at the red Servant in surprised, his body tensed, he backed away. But Archer did not allow for this too happened as he slashed his now long-swords at Caster. Kanshou for the head, Bakuya for the hip up to the shoulder. A sure kill._

 _Except the impossible happened, the body of Caster suddenly shrunk down and disappeared into the smoke._

 _"What th—!" Archer's surprise was cut off when from the smoke erupted a small figure before it expanded into the form of a man, Caster. The white robed Servant was in midair, the magical circle was at the tip of his black staff. A smile was present on his face, his hood still obscured the rest of his features._

 _"A wise decision! But a mistake nonetheless!" Caster exclaimed in amusement, he pointed his staff toward Archer and Rin's direction. The magical circle shone brightly and fired a bright white light at them._

 _Archer turned around, charged toward his Master, hugged Rin and used his own body to protect her as blinding white light draped around them. Rin pulled out two jewels, crushed and..._

 _"Bilden, zwei Schichten Barriere!" Rin chanted, and a two layer shield formed before the two. The light reached the shield and everything turned white._

 _Rin and Archer were pushed back, their bodies entered through one of the entryways that led to another passage, away from the on that Caster didn't want them to enter. Rin felt her body hurled through the air, smashed against the damp walls and drag across the floor. After a few minutes their bodies came to a stop, the white light disappeared and the two looked up. The passage was blocked as the walls collapsed around it._

 _Rin glared at the blocked passage and a distant disembodied voice echoed around them._

 _"Now that that's done. Please do not come this way, will you? We have some private matters to attend to. Well, you may come...if you accept my proposal of giving up. Until then, farewell!" The voice of Caster echoed, his amused farewell only seemed infuriated Rin as she got up, ready for another round. But her exhaustion got the better of her, her adrenaline began to pass and so did the fire that lit up her body. Archer's hand caught her by the shoulder, righted her up. He looked down at her._

 _"Come on Rin, we already wasted enough energy here. Continuing to fight a Servant is not wise. Let's go, this place isn't safe. And you...!" Archer was interrupted, as the loud clangs of heavy metal steps was heard. The two turned around and saw their former enemies, the ones who had pursued them for two days. Their weapons ready for battle._

.

.

.

"After that Archer and me fought them, lost them and just went to some rooftop and tried to get some rest, emphasis on the word tried as those mages appeared again. Though they didn't attack us, just kept a look out on us. Archer just decided to carry me around the entire night, to keep us on the move. Even then I couldn't sleep." Rin concluded, as she crossed her arms and looked down at the table with a trouble looked.

"Hmm, after that was the...whole Sakura being taken situation right?" Shirou said, his face set in a frown at the battle prowess of Caster and over Sakura's kidnapping.

"Yeah, but that was many hours later, after we lost them." Rin said after a few moments, her eyes focused on Shirou. "Even though I want to find Sakura, I'm also curious over what is down in that sewer."

"Sakura takes priority." Shirou said without a single bit of hesitation. Rin looked at Shirou with a small smile, happy at his worried and desire for Sakura's safety.

"Of course she's priority idiot. But we can't deny the fact that those guys are threat. We don't know how many people they could be putting in danger." Rin reasoned. Shirou clicked his tongue in anger as the words hit him harder than what he had thought. He wished to bring back Sakura from wherever she was, but he did not wish to endanger the lives of others because of his neglect.

They stayed silent after a few moments before Shirou's head snapped up, as realization sprung up.

"What if she's at that place!?" Shirou asked, renewed energy filled him as he uttered those words. Rin looked up at in surprised.

"Huh?"

"We don't know where or who could've taken Sakura, but...maybe we could kill two birds with one stone with this..." Shirou said in a more subdued manner. As he realized from Rin's smile that she had already thought of this. He looked off to the sides, embarrass. Rin smiled at his words and gained a little twinkle in her eyes.

"Whoa Emiya-kun, that was pretty smart of you. I guess I shouldn't underestimate that head of yours, hmm?" Rin said with a teasing smile. Shirou just gave her a deadpan look.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Hmm, don't tell me I spoke to soon? I guess I really overestimated you Emiya-kun. You really are pretty dumb." Rin said with a smile, Shirou just groaned. Rin basked in the glory of Shirou's embarrassment before the smile dropped from her face. "Still, we need a battle plan. I'm really tired of getting kicked around."

Shirou looked at Rin in surprised.

"We? Are we going to work together now? I thought you said we were going to be enemies." Shirou asked in confusion.

"What? You want to throw my offer of an alliance to my face? Okay then. If you want to I can just take away your last remaining Command Spell and have Saber all to myself." Rin said in understanding, her head nodded as she looked at Shirou straight in the eye. Shirou gulped.

"Eh…not what I meant."

"Humph, don't take my offer for alliance for granted Emiya-kun. I'm very serious here about taking down those guys down, and it's personal. So if I have to take back what I told you about us being enemies then I'll do it in a heartbeat if it means that I can rub their loss in their collective faces." Rin said cruelly and harshly with frown, then her lips twitched slightly and a smile blossomed into her face. "Though I'm proud that you took my words pretty seriously. It makes me very happy that you're not a lost cause."

"Geez, for someone who's talking about alliances you sure like to abuse your partners, huh?" Shirou said, he shook his head at Rin. The girl in question just huffed and crossed her arms.

"Anyway, we still have to make our plan for the War."

"We go to where you fought Caster then?" Shirou asked.

"What? No! I and Archer got our butt kicked...well, we'll be more rested by tomorrow. But it still wouldn't be a smart move to go right into the enemy's territory." Rin explained, closed her eyes and went deep in-thought. After a few minutes she opened her blue eyes and looked at Shirou. "Emiya-kun, tomorrow will check Sakura's house, just in case."

"Her…house?"

"Yup, I don't know if I told you this, but the Matou's are magi family. Even though their family has fallen into decay, there is still a member who is still active and could've been the cause for the fight in the alley." At Rin's words Shirou relaxed slightly. She smiled at that.

The two stayed silent for a few moments.

"Shinji." Shirou said all of the sudden, Rin looked at him confusedly.

"What?"

"Shinji! He was allied with those mages! If we can find him, we can find more information about those guys!" Shirou said firmly, Rin blinked a few times at that before she nodded.

"That's great start, problem is that we don't know where they could've taken him." Rin pointed out, Shirou crossed his arms at that. "But, I guess it's better than nothing."

"So tomorrow will go and patrol then?" Shirou asked after a moment.

"Yeah, there's no point in wasting time. For now we focus on finding information and worry about the fighting for later."

Rin had made up her mind already with that, she could already tell that there were many flaws in this plan. But, for now they held the advantage of surprise. The enemy probably would not expect for her to have join forces with another Master, and even though Saber was currently out Rin knew she could find a way to get her out of that state.

She and Shirou stood up and went their separate ways, Shirou to his room and Rin to one of the guest rooms. She entered the room, threw herself on the bed and closed her eyes.

 _Tomorrow it was time for the counterattack._

 **.**

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 **.**

Interlude

The sky was cold, it would soon be morning.

Her cape, which had taken the shape of the wings of a butterfly carried her through the air until she decided to descend down on the ground. She realized that escape was futile as a confrontation would occurred at any given moment. So why not forced it to happen now?

Her feet landed on the forested area, near the Ryuuodo Temple. She walked softly forward, her back tense, lips tight.

The sound of wood being snapped was heard.

The wings of birds as they flew away because of a disturbance.

The leaves that fell out of the trees as its branches held an unnatural weight on them.

The woman stopped her walk, she turned around and looked around.

Twenty-seven white armored mages surrounded her. Their weapons held firmly in their grasp, ready to be use.

The woman moved her hooded face forward and lock gaze with a man.

A powerful man, dress in fine white robes and hair that flew down his back. The man raised a hand, the one that did not held the black staff.

"Good evening, or should I say morning? The sun has yet to rise, but give an hour and the rays of the sun will greet us." The man said with a smile.

"Enough with the pleasantry, let's get this over with, fake Servant." The purple hooded woman said with a sneer, her tiredness and anger clear on her voice.

"Oh? I see then, then I guess we shall do battle then. I truly wished to speak a woman such as yourself, you know. I was just wondering how powerful magic was back in your time."

"I'll be more than happy to show, fake Servant." The woman said, as she raised her right hand. A magical circle formed and light began to emit.

"Humph, I see then. Then let us battle then, Medea."


	7. Little mices surveillance

_Interlude_

Blinding flashes of lights illuminated the dark forest.

Heads turned away, eyes shut tight, lips in a sneered up into grimace. Armored gauntlets were placed to protect themselves as debris, rocks, grass, wooden splinters flew through the forest clearing. Rubble hit their bodies, bounced off their white Mystic Codes harmlessly, their bodies remained unharmed.

"Ghi!" A woman hissed in pain, a small pebble bounced off her gauntlet arm, sailed toward her face and cut through her left cheek. Her cheek was ravished, raw skin met cool air. Blood oozed out of the wound, the left side of her face was cover by the thick red liquid. A pained sneered was present, her teeth red from the blood. The white magical cloth was stained red as the blood dripped down to her body.

She placed her armored hand on her injured cheek, turned her eyes forward and continued to watch the amazing. It was a battle that exceeded anything that she…no that all of them had ever seen before.

A battle between mages raged. No, to say such thing would've been nothing short of insulting.

It was more accurate to say that it was battle between heroes.

The battleground, a forest area near the Ryuudo temple, had been reduced into a thirty-meter square ashen, burnt, destroyed plain. Trees were toppled over, grass had been burnt, craters filled the ground and the injured bodies of the white armored mages cluttered the floor.

The men and woman around the area groaned in pain, tended their injuries, watch in awe at the battle. Some of the mages who were specialized in healing spells helped, still, their gazes turned toward the spectacle.

High level spells were being cast with an uncomfortable ease. Magic far beyond the abilities of the spectators was being performed, utilized with perfect control and great destructive power.

Purple light blinded them, burned the ground, and shook it, as a great explosion erupted. Smoke spur throughout the battleground, it submerged most of their body into the earthly smoke and debris. She and her companions moved, crawled back, the battle had already started to reach its conclusion.

It was because of this that the battle got even more dangerous, desperation to end the conflict had settled between the two powerful beings.

The smoke cleared, it revealed a man, long white hair fluttered softly, the fine white robe on his body was cut, dirty, ripped and bloody. He was on one knee, balanced kept with the black staff on his left hand. Yet, even as he was on the floor kneeling, his posture seemed relaxed. The only sign of him being in a battle was his injuries and the massive light blue magical circle in front of him, it glowed, spun, and gathered magical energy in rapid manner.

A few meters ahead of him was his enemy, the purple robed witch. She was injured, bleeding, cloth ripped. Her knees were bend as she knelt, left hand held her right forearm tightly in pain, her right hand's gripped on her wand weaken ever so slightly. The purple cape, which once had a hood that covered nearly her entire face had been blasted off and had not been given the opportunity to fix it with her magic, to distracted in her battle with white robed man.

The two combatants had shown their prowess in the mage arts, different styles, different destructive power, and different specializations.

The purple witch had demonstrated far more diversity, more abilities and had even perform impossible feats, things that the mages around wished could perform, as Mage the witch had outperform her opponent with her spells…but…

The man in white still held the advantage, even if he lacked the diversity or the impossible feats that his opponent could perform, he made up for it with his battle experience and the concentrated power he could put out to meet and overcome every and each spell thrown at him.

Every one saw this and understood this fact, even the purple witch. It was because of this she sought out to end the conflict immediately.

Eleven magical circles surrounded the purple robed witch, each prepared to launch a devastating beam of prana toward the white robe man. The purple robe witch's mouth twisted into a snarl.

"—!" Eleven bright lights were shot out of the purple robe witch magical circles, the blasts roar, the entire forest was illuminated in purple. Each beam traveled with deadly precision, the intention clear as crystal.

In response, the white robed man pointed his black staff forward. The man's magical circle stopped spinning and gathering prana, the light blue magical circle shone so brightly that for the spectators of the battle, it appeared to have almost become a miniature sun. They looked away, used their arms to protect their eyes or lowered their hoods down. Not a second later, the roar of a powerful magical beam being fire pierced their ears.

The armored crowd barely had a second to look at the battle, before they scurryied back as both purple and blue magic clashed, and detonated. For the spectators, their vision turned pure white, ears rang from the blast, an uncomfortable heat scorched their skin. Seconds ticked on, the white brightness resided to reveal the ground before them, the trees surrounding them, the hot steam produced from the edges and all the way to the center of the large crater formed from the blast.

In the center of the crater, obscured by the steam, was the victor of the battle and its looser. The winner, the white robe mage, the powerful entity that was the allied of the armor mages that had stayed back to watch the battle once they understood that has mage's they stood no chance against the purple witch, even if they wore the augmented armor.

The victor leaned heavily against his black staff, his breaths heavy.

The looser, the purple witch, the true Caster for the Fifth Holy Grail War, she was kneeling on the floor, her light blue hair was a mess. Her head moved, upward, her expression showed the exhaustion clearly, her eyes shone with irritation at the defeat, yet she made no move for an attack.

No, she understood that to continue the fight was useless and repetitive. So, did the man in white as he walked towards with confidence on his step.

"Whoof…! Quite the effort I had to put there princess, actually made me work for it there." The man said as he made towards Caster and looked down on her. The woman gave out a bitter snort.

"Do you never take things seriously? I would prefer for my kidnappers to at the least act as one and not as a buffoon." Caster said venomously as she looked at the victor with narrowed eyes. Said victor just smiled and scratched the back of his head.

"Hmm, no, that sounds like something with too much wasteful energy." The man answer in good-nature. "I prefer to accommodate and treat the ladies with care and quite the catching personality."

"Humph, I would rather choke on my own spit before entertaining your 'catching personality." Caster answer savagely, which made the victor take a step back and looked at her with a grimace. He noticed that his allies for the time being walked towards them cautiously.

"A geez, that sure is something rather cruel to say no? Well, I guess this the price to pay for being enemies." The man white said as he shook his head and looked at the sky." All right then, since my charms seems to have failed me…again…I will have you to promise me to behave this time, please? This is the second time that you have attempted to escape and this was even more of a spectacle! Fighting here and showing our power before an entire crowd? I mean, I'm not one to show off, but still it was rather fun. Though I did fight that red Archer…today? Yesterday? Oh my, it seems I lost tra—!"

"Will you silence yourself!" Caster cried out, frustrated by how much the man could speak. The powerful white mage looked a bit surprised and smiled.

"Sorry got carried away!" Caster ignored the apology and stood up as she waved a hand, the mages in armored that had been approaching them stopped and tensed as they saw her use magic once more. But their worries were for nothing as Caster merely fixed her attire back to how it was before.

"…I shall keep…my promise, as long as Souichirou-sama remains safe…" Caster answer firmly, yet there was a worried in her tone.

"Of course, I did give you my word, didn't I? Heh, I mean, he's just sleeping for now. And anyway, we really don't want to hurt people around here." The mage in white said easily with a smile, a moment later the smile turned sly. "You can do whatever you want with the man..."

Caster blushed and pulled her hood over face just as she dematerializes away. With that the conflict ended.

"Huh!? Where'd she go!?" One of the armored mage cried out in surprise just as everyone began to panicked and look around frantically, the mage in white turned towards them.

"H-hey, did she escaped!"

"Hey, hey…!" The mage in white called out in a calm voice, with that everyone in the clearing stopped and looked at him as he waved his arms to gather their attention. "Calm down everyone, she's still. She just went into her spiritual form to sulk a bit, nothing to—!"

At those words, a massive and rage induced pressure settled on the clearing before it disappeared just as quickly.

Every mage there looked perturbed.

"—worry about!" The white mage finished, as if such dangerous pressure was nothing new to him.

"Truly, for a Servant you are far to free spirited." A new voice cut in, the army of armor mages looked back through the clearing of trees that still stood tall.

A man came from the shadows of the trees, his attire similar to the of the mages around but it held some differences. The man possessed a long cape that reached beneath his knees, it hugged his entire frame and showed nothing underneath it. A black cloak was on his shoulders, it barely passed his chest, a hood attached to the black cloak, adorned with white fur which obscured the man's face. Only his mouth and jaw were visible.

"Ho, you'll find that in that statement of yours there's a mistake but…well, I know you won't care much, so Lieutenant, what can I do for you?"

"Is the capture of the Servant Caster complete?" The 'Lieutenant' asked, he ignored the man's words as he reached the front of the white mage and looked around at the damaged forest.

"Hmm, I wouldn't call it capture…you see that pretty princess over there just denied all my advance—!"

"Why didn't you use your command spells?" The Lieutenant asked with a grave voice as he turned towards the cheerful mage. At the words, white mage stopped and brought his right hand forward and three Command Spells appeared as the white mage released whatever spell to hide them from view.

"Didn't seem necessary, what, you would've used them without regret?"

"Of course…" The Lieutenant answer without missing a beat. "That was the reason as to why they were made for, no? To keep control over these Servants and make them do whatever we wish."

"Hmm…true, but, I guess that's why our dear director gave these things to me and not to you, huh?" The white mage said with vicious smile. The Lieutenant grumbled beside him, turned around and marched away. He stopped when he noticed the crowd of armored mages that had watched the entire exchange.

"What are you idiots doing standing there!? You want me to assign you to the squad going after Berserker's Master!?" The Lieutenant words had the immediate effect of making everyone flinched and inched away in fear. The Lieutenant nodded in satisfaction. "Then move it! All you will be protecting the cargo trucks moving at the temple. Go!"

At the man's command, all of them nodded, some answer with a 'yes sir' or grumble in fright at the threat, not a second later and they ran at high speeds into the forest. Once they all had disappear the Lieutenant turned towards the powerful Master of Caster.

"What hour is it?"

"Hmm? Hum, well the suns coming up and…hmm, oh! It will be six's in the morning soon. Quite early to be doing things if you asked me." The Master said with a sullen expression.

"Good thing nobody asked then and don't look like such a petulant child, you could've been in bed or whatever is you do on your free time had you used the Command Spell!"

"You really are quite angry over this huh?"

"Because of the stunt that Caster pull, the cargo truck operation had to be put into complete halt! Now we have to be careful about moving the cargo back without problems in the middle of the day!"

"Calm down, it's not something to worry about. Just move discreetly…"

"Move discreetly he says…as if wasn't bad enough, now I have to deal with that disgrace of descendant of the Makiri…" The Lieutenant grumbled in disgust.

"How harsh…" The Master tilted his head to the side and smiled.

"You say it as if I have no right to be! That boy not disappointed me…he made me look like a complete fool for putting my faith in him!"

"Aah, but that is life, is it not? A huge gamble with no way to know of the results?"

"Humph I don't wish to hear those words come from your mouth you half-breed hypocrite."

"Ugh…you're such a difficult person to deal with you know? Seriously, you're lucky _I am_ a free-spirited kind of guy, that's about the only thing you got right."

"Tsk, I can't understand how the Director keeps you around…"

"That is because unlike you seem to like to believe, I've been with her for far longer than you…and unlike you, I am not a raging asshole, hmm."

The glare that the Lieutenant could be felt even underneath the hood, the white mage just chuckled and began to walk away.

"All right, all right, I know when I pushed far too many of those buttons of yours, so I'll be going back to base. Come along princess, your sleeping prince is waiting for you." The Master said playfully to empty air, a shimmer pass through the wind that let the Master know he had been heard. The man in white turned toward the Lieutenant. "Oh, it would be good to tell you that someone accidently broke something from the trucks! Seems pretty bad too, maybe it'll take an hour or two to fix it up!"

The Lieutenant went rigid at the words and let out a loud cursed as he ran towards the Temple.

 **.**

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 **Fifth Holy Grail War, Day Seven.**

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She looked so vulnerable down on her futon.

A stray thought passed through Shirou Emiya's head as he looked down at Saber. It was hard to believe she had been the one who had engaged Berserker on close-quarters or the one who held such a divine and glorious blade between those slender fingers of hers. To see her like that, unconscious and with such a spent expression, was heart-wrenching.

So there Shirou sat, beside Saber, fist clenched, narrowed eyes. He had been beside the small petite Servant since he had woken up at six in the morning. He had not moved from there since he had finished breakfast with Rin, nearly thirty minutes ago.

A pained sighed escaped him, he patted his numb legs as he tried to get the blood to flow through the limbs.

"Emiya-kun! Where are you!?" The voice of Rin called out, Shirou turned his head towards the door of the room. "Come on, Archer got news for us!"

The copper hair boy clicked his tongue in annoyance at the mention of Archer, a surge of unknown irritation filled him, still he got up and went to exit the room. Just as he made it to the door he stopped, turned toward Saber and nodded.

"Get well soon Saber…"

With that he walked out to the hallway and made his way into the living room where Rin Tohsaka waited for him with her arms crossed. Shirou stopped as he took in her attire, a long-sleeved red shirt adorned by a white cross on her chest, dangerously high skirt, with high knee-socks that went on and on her long and slender legs.

Shirou stared at her with wide eyes, something that Rin noticed rather quickly.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?" Rin questioned with her arms crossed, pursed lips and slightly narrowed eyes. Shirou blinked a couple of times and focused his golden-brown eyes on the girls aqua colored eyes.

"Huh…no, I'm just surprised. Where'd you get those cloths from Tohsaka?"

"…!" Rin uncrossed her arms and looked at the boy in surprise before she gave off a satisfy smiled. "Oh that? I had Archer bring me some cloths from my house. Even if all those jerks had gone through my house and nearly blew it all up, my room remained relatively intact you see."

"Aah." Shirou nodded at the words, it made sense to him and he was rather glad that not her entire home was lost. Still, he did feel rather upset… "I thought you were going to wear the cloth I brought you."

…

…

The look that Rin Tohsaka gave him was priceless, Shirou would've even called it adorable.

Her face had turned red just as the shirt she wore, her wide blue eyes made for nice contrast and the way Rin hugged herself made her look little, it was rather cute.

"Wh-What did you—!? E-E-Emiya-kun—!"

"What? I put allot of effort into making sure that the cloths I brought you were your size and comfortable. At least you could've warn me that you were getting your old stuff back." It was the truth, before he had gotten to sleep last night he had made sure to get something for Rin considering the state in which she had been. He had chosen from Taiga's own clothing that she left and some, embarrassingly so, from his own collection.

Rin calmed down a little, crossed her arms and looked off to the side.

"D-Don't say such things Emiya-kun…that sounds way to intimate! A-And were just temporary allies, at least until we can get those mages out of the War and out of my city!" Rin said viciously, the tone of her voiced even made Shirou cringe. Though the blush on her face diminished the effect.

"…" Shirou remained silent as he continued to look at Rin. The girl with the pigtails hair shook a little at the stare, sighed, recomposed herself and gave a serious look towards the copper hair boy.

"Listen Emiya-kun, last night I had Archer stay on watch to make sure that no one had follow us or that no one had come for you after your fight with those mages." Rin said as she crossed her arms. "Also, I had him check for any traps or for anything that those guys may have set up so that they could keep a look on you."

"What?" Shirou looked surprised at the words. Rin just shook her head, placed a hand on her hips and gave him a look that would make the boy feel stupid.

"'What'? You couldn't have thought that after your fight at the academy that was the end of this whole conflict, right?" Rin asked and waited for the reply, when it didn't come she just sighed. "Aah, you really are hopeless. Emiya-kun, you need to start taking things seriously…had those guys decided to come here and finished their job, you would've been capture and force into who knows what, and Saber would've been killed. _And it would've been all your fault._ "

"—!" Those words hurt far more than any blow he had received in his life, the fact that he had been mulling over that entire fact since he had left Saber alone just made the impact worse. He winced, sharp pain shot up from his left hand, he brought it up and saw blood pour out. His nails had just pierce the skin of his palm, he hadn't noticed just how badly he had clenched his hands.

Rin saw this, sighed, walked toward the kitchen, pulled a tissue, walked back towards Shirou, ignored his sudden sputters of she being to close and cleaned his bloodied hands. She finished, balled the tissue paper, and set it into the table next to them. She shook her head and gave him a glare.

"Luckily for you Archer found nothing, which means that they had left you off the hook since your fight with them. I hope you understand how lucky you are." Rin said seriously and looked directly into the boy's eyes. Shirou stared right back and nodded.

"Right…"

"All right then." Rin seemed satisfied with that, pulled back, crossed her arms, and looked at Shirou in the eyes. "Listen, aside from checking out things and looking for some of my things back at home, Archer found something very interesting on his way back."

"What?"

"There seemed to have been a fight between Servants near the Ryuudo Temple." Rin informed the copper hair boy and took his surprised expression as cue for her to continue. "Archer doesn't know which Servant it was that was fighting, but he guessed that one of them had to at least be Caster, the Servant that we fought while on the run. He didn't get a look, but…"

"So, we're changing our location of investigation then?" Shirou asked as straightened his back, if there was a way to find Sakura quick, then he would take it.

Rin looked down, lips pursed, deep in thought.

"Yes, it's the best choice."

"What about Sakura?" The way the Master of Saber had asked the question and how his body had gone rigid, it made Rin looked at him surprise.

A smile blossom on her lips.

"To find Sakura…our best bet is to go to Ryuudo Temple and try to learn as much as possible over what they're doing there. Once we have all the information necessary…"

"We'll storm through and save her." Shirou completed, he nodded to himself and looked at the dark hair girl, though he was surprise to find her looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"Storm through? Emiya-kun, if you don't remember correctly, Archer and I lost to their Servant and were being pushed around by those armor grunts! What do you think storming through will accomplished?" Rin questioned, her arms still cross and a glare on her eyes.

"Guh…" Shirou grimaced slightly at the words, yet still his eyes remained firm. "If it means saving Sakura out whatever those people are planning on doing…"

"Yeah, well we don't even know if Sakura is there."

The two of them stayed silent for a few moments, neither diverted their eyes from each other, body tense and rigid.

"You really are dumb Emiya-kun…I'll guess that for now I'll have to keep a tight leach on you." Rin said easily, turned around and walked out of the living room. Shirou blinked at the clear dismissal.

"Wait…what?"

"Hmm? Come on, we're wasting time here." Rin reply came out distant as she had already rounded the corner, Shirou blinked and hurried after her.

"H-Hey—! Wait up, Tohsaka!" Shirou reached her, though he continued to walk just to keep up with the girl beside him. He looked at her in confusion. "You're…are you agreeing with me on this?"

"Of course not, that plan of yours is stupid." Came the quick reply.

"—!" Shirou let out an exasperated grunt escaped him and Rin stopped to look at him for a second.

"Emiya-kun…as of right now, you will follow everything I say to you…do you understand? I don't care whether you like or not, but you'll act as if you were my own Servant." Rin said as a vicious smile crossed her lips, it grew as the copper hair boy took a step back. "As of right now you are useless in any combat scenario or anything that can make any change against those guys…but it's better to have two pair of ears and brains to analyzed the situation. The rescuing and defeating, that leave it to me."

Shirou stayed silent for a minute as he looked at Rin, and let a sigh escaped him.

"Right…"

"Good." At that Rin smiled cheerfully. "I was worried there for a second that I would have to force you into doing something that you might regret later."

"What!?"

"…" Rin didn't answer as she walked out the Emiya residence front door. Shirou stared at her back with an annoyed expression, a sighed escaped him and he followed after her. He closed the residence down, made sure to secure that it was tightly lock. Though Shirou knew that if the enemy wanted to, they could've easily break in and…

Rin noticed the copper hair boys troubled expression.

"Hmm, worried about Saber?"

"Hrm, yeah…"

"Humph, you really should take better care of her Emiya-kun, though, luckily for you I'm here to offer you a hand."

"Hm?"

"While we will be away doing our investigation, I'll have Archer keep out an eye here…that's good enough for you?"

"…" Shirou had no word for that, the thought of Archer looking at his home made the boys skin crawl in annoyance, but, even he could admit that the situation wasn't exactly on his favor. Shirou nodded at her proposal.

Rin nodded in satisfaction at that, turned away and made to go towards the Temple. Shirou followed after her.

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.

It took almost thirty minutes for the two to walk from the Emiya's residence towards the road that lead to the Ryuudo Temple's entrance and not even second later Rin had graved Shirou by his right arm and scurried away into a bush to hide.

The two hid, looked at each other for a moment, felt that they had not been discovered yet and sneaked in a peak.

Quite the distant away, they saw six cargo trucks, spread out near the entrance staircase, each of them were the same color white. In fact, each of the trucks were almos the same, with their cargo containers attached to the vehicles. There was one that was slightly different from the others, parked directly in front of the staircase, that vehicle and its container were far larger and far wider than the rest.

Shirou turned towards Rin, his eyes narrowed as he took in the scene.

"Should we get closer?" Shirou asked, hands firmly clenched around the leaves in front of him as he waited for his companion to answer. The twin-tailed hair girl just bit her lip, stayed silent for a while and then shook her head.

"No, to risky, we really don't want to get into a big mess we might regret later…even though I haven't detected a boundary field in place, I prefer to play it safe." Rin informed seriously, Shirou nodded in at the logic as he looked around to make sure they were more secure. "And anyway, they don't seem to have noticed us at all. So, for now let's stay here and see what their planning."

At those words, the two of them poured magical energy into their eyes, reinforcing them. With that, their surveillance had finally commenced.

The two saw their enemies, men and women, dressed in white suits, with matching black leather boots and gloves, the suits held a familiar pattern to the one they used when in combat with the multiple belts around their chests. They loaded in huge boxes, helped each other out or discussed some things. Two men in clear view talked to each other.

"Emiya-kun, can you read lips?" Rin asked as she turned away from her surveillance to look at her current partner.

"No…well, I can pick a few words here and there but…"

"Hrm…" Rin nodded, dissatisfied that she couldn't gleamed into whatever they were talking. The information that was being talked about could've been incredibly useful to use against them.

" _Their talking about the successful capture of two Servants."_ A disembodied voice said, Rin blinked and turned to looked back at the Shopping district.

"Archer?" Shirou looked at her with raised brow, but Rin kept her eyes toward a distant building. Even though she couldn't see him, she knew her Servants was perched on top one of the buildings on the nearby district.

" _Keep your head straight Rin, I'll informed you of whatever their talking about."_

"All right!" Rin cheered with a smile as she looked back at Shirou, who stared at her with a raised brow. The girl blushed at her lapse of control there and quickly reigned herself. "Archer knows how to read lips, so we'll know what their saying."

"…" Shirou rolled his eyes and grumbled as he turned back to look at their enemy's talk. Rin noticed this and a teasing grin spread through her lips.

"What's wrong Emiya-kun? Jealous?"

The copper hair boy grumbled some more at that. Rin smiled at the reaction and turned to pay attention at the scene before them, she still informed him of what Archer said. The two men were joined in by a woman who contributed more to the conversation.

"…"

"…"

Rin and Shirou payed closed attention to the scene, strained their ears, to try and hear, to satisfied their curiosity. Rin reinforced her ears and only managed to catch a few words.

" _Rin, I have an update."_ The voice of Archer informed.

"Uh? Then out with it Arhcer." Rin order with pursed lips. Shirou stayed focus on the front, in case the enemy came for them.

" _Humph, what they are loading into the truck are explosives devices as well as ritual materials and construction equipment."_

"Wait—why would they need any of those stuffs?"

" _The explosives apparently were for a deep cavern inside the forest area of the Temple, they didn't say anything else about it. For the ritual materials and construction equipment were…well how about you take a look for yourself."_

"What the heck do you mean by that Archer? This is not time for you being a massive jerk!" Rin said harshly as she glared back at the district.

"Tohsaka…"

"What is it?" Rin turn towards Shirou, who had an expression of confusion on his face, the Tohsaka heir tilted her at that.

"What are they doing…? Why are they taking the Temple's entrance!?"

"Huh!?" Rin turned back to the scene and her jaw dropped in incredulity at what she saw.

Descending the stairs were four of the armor mages that had plague both young Masters trouble during the war, though, they were different from the others around them.

Their arms and legs were heavily armored, they were grotesque, bulky, they glowed with great magical energy coursed through each limb just to make it possible to move and the ability to perform incredibly heavy duties…like the one they were performing now. Those armor pieces looked scary, especially by how much they reminded the two young Masters of the towering gray giant's, Berserker, own limbs.

Which made the task they performed seem a little more believable, as those four carried the Temple entrance by themselves. An iron contraption was underneath the entrance's floor, it supported the entire structure as the four armored individuals carried the entrance towards the large truck that awaited them. Many of the suited men and women turned toward their descending comrade and regarded them with nods and claps.

Rin and Shirou looked on in amazement, but then they took notice of something.

A man sat on the edge of the Temple's entrance, one leg propped up the other left to hang. He was dressed in a samurai attire, purpled the most notifying feature. Even though they couldn't seem his features properly due to the foliage around them, by his body language, he looked calm and in serene.

"What the heck is happening…?" Rin questioned as her eyes twitched in confusion.

"Who is that guy? Is that another member of their group?" Shirou asked as he took his eyes off the scene before him and looked at Rin. The girl shook her head slowly.

"It doesn't make much sense though…I mean it's completely different from their normal attire, isn't it? They always dressed in white, with a lot of belts and…well the dark colors on hands and feet…I guess that one is a stretch, but it's still consistent! But that guy? No way, there's no way that he's with them willingly."

"Then is he…no, that's not a member from the temple, the colors themselves don't match…" Shirou concluded and turned towards Rin with narrowed eyes. "Do you think that's a Servant?"

Rin bit her left thumb as she looked at their enemies as the four hulking brutes holstered the Temple's entrance into the large cargo container, barely fitting the thing into it. The four heavy armored mages stepped away as the doors for the container were closed. At that the people around the area began to move.

"Yeah…Emiya-kun, I think you're right." Rin said distractedly as she thought what it could mean. "But why would a Servant give up so easily? They're supposed to be Heroic Spirits, beings that faced many adversity and overcome them to get to where they are right now…!"

"…maybe that Servant isn't the aggressive type." Shirou answered her, his voice plain as he tried to be the calm one in the duo. Rin turned and looked at him questionably.

"A non-aggressive Servant?" Rin questioned, eyes narrowed and hand beneath her chin as she went into deep thought. "Well, it isn't as if they don't exist…there are memorable figures who once were pacifist…but, well whoever pulled that Servant must have pretty bad luck…"

" _Rin, eyes at front…an important figure is descending the stairs."_ Archer interrupted which made Rin sharply looked up at front, Shirou followed her gaze.

There the two saw three armored mages descend the stairs with one of that looked different from the others. Dressed in a long white cape that hugged his body, a black cloak over his shoulders and a hood that was coated in fur.

"Archer…who is he?" Rin asked, her eyes focused on the new individual. Her Servant didn't respond, as the individuals around the differently dressed person talked.

"… _on of them just called him lieutenant."_ Archer responded after a few moments.

"Damn it, I was hoping it would've been the Director…" Rin muttered to himself, hands clenched into tight fist as she looked away from the scene. Shirou looked at her with questions in his eyes.

"The director?"

"Huh…? Yes, the apparent leader of those jerks there, wait…I didn't tell you about them?"

"Hrm, I think you did, but your kind of kept on going talking about how much those guys over there kept dogging you through the entire town and how much you hate them." Shirou answered dryly, his eyes lighted up a little at the sight of the embarrass blush in Rin's face. Though that light dimmed as he thought back to the fight against the armor enemies and Servants. "But I think I heard those guys talk about a suppose director and…Shinji too, I think he said something about a lieutenant letting do what he wanted…"

"Uh!? Why didn't you say anything about that!?"

"Hrm, I…I just kinda of forgot I guess, with Saber unconscious, meeting Illya and then you coming accusing about taking Sakura it was just in the back of my head." Shirou answer honestly, he turned to Rin fully and narrowed his eyes. "Is this lieutenant important then?"

"Yes! Look at him, the guy with the long cape and fur on his hood—!" Rin pointed out, which Shirou took noticed. Said person got up on the truck that was the furthest away from the Temple, the multiple roars of engines warned the two teens that their enemies were about to be on the move soon. The trucks moved, got into the dirt road that lead back towards the shopping district.

And they headed straight for them, the two young Master freaked out that fact.

Rin suddenly tackled Shirou down on the grown, she ignored the copper hairs boy yelped of discomfort and tried to scurried further into the bush. The trucks passed by them, completely oblivious to their presence. Rin ignored the squirming that Shirou's body was doing until the final truck, the one that held the Temple's entrance, pass by them without any incident.

Rin stood up and watched the trucks go through the road of the shopping district and turned at a corner. Rin ran after them.

"Archer keep an eye on them!" Rin commanded her Servant and sped up after the trucks, she turned her head slightly towards a red faced Shirou. "Come on Emiya-kun!"

"W-W-Wait up!" Shirou stammered as he stood up and ran to catch up to her. The feeling of Rin's body pressed against his still lingered on his mind. With a blush that didn't want to go down, he tried to keep up with the girl.

Rin and Shirou ran at top speeds, they weaved through the crowds, let out half-hearted apologies when they bump into people. Sweat poured out of their bodies, their cloths and hair stuck to their bodies, haggard breaths escaped them.

The two skidded to a stop on a corner behind a building, their lungs short on air, they sneaked a quick view.

The trucks that they had been following for the past twenty minutes had reached the Fuyuki Bridged, each of the vehicles turned in a uniform manner and got on the road of the bridged. Once the large and last truck had finished its turned, Shirou tapped Rin's shoulder.

"Tohsaka…"

"Yeah, let's go!" With that the girl took off, Shirou followed behind her. They passed the park, got into the sides of the bridge, it didn't have many people on it and continued their mission. Rin looked up.

"Archer!" Rin called out outwardly, even though she couldn't see her Servant, she knew that he was up ahead, cold steel eyes watchful as always. For a minute the Servant remained silent.

" _Hmm, the trucks just passed the bridged…"_ Archer stopped for a moment as he analyzed the situation. _"They seem to be splitting up. The four leading trucks turned a corner just now towards the left…the others seem to be going further into the city."_

"Tsk—! Their splitting up!" Rin announced towards Shirou, the boy frown as he continued with the marathon. The two grew closer and closer towards the other side of the bridged. They exited the bridge and halted to a stop, their breaths haggard, their bodies wet with sweat. Rin looked at the copper hair Master. "The truck with the lieutenant and the one with the Temple just split up, we'll need to go after one of them…and I can't have Archer leaving us just to keep an eye on the other trucks. So, which one Emiya-kun?"

"Huh?"

"Which one? We need to go after one of them…and has my partner, I have to let you some room for choice, so which one Emiya-kun?" Rin explained as she tried to catch her breath. Shirou looked at her and looked down.

They could go after the large truck and find whatever whoever is it that they took, but...there was no doubt in his mind about his decision, if they could find whatever this lieutenant person knew then they could find where Sakura was.

"Tohsaka, where is the one with the lieutenant going? If we can corner him, then we can find where Sakura is."

"Humph, I agree with your choice, though I'll be asking more than just where Sakura is, whether he likes it or not!"

With that the two followed the four trucks, thanks to Archer they didn't lose them.

 **.**

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 **.**

 **.**

The trucks destination had been the harbor.

The containers stacked atop one another hid the warehouse where the vehicles had parked in front of. The people disembark the trucks, talked to other suited mages there and then one went for the truck that had lead the caped lieutenant disembarked once he had been told the information he desired and made his way towards the warehouse.

Shirou and Rin watched the entire scene from behind the gates that lead towards the warehouse's, both hidden, their eyes in complete attention. The twin-tailed hair looked towards her left and Archer appeared, arms crossed, body posture casual as he leaned against the wall for the entrance to the harbor.

"Archer, what do you think? Can you see that lieutenant person from here?"

"No, the warehouse walls don't exactly let me see what's going on inside Rin. And don't ask me if I can go any closer, I don't want them to suddenly become aware that I'm here and for all of them go into the offence. I've rested enough to get back some of my strength…but not all of it."

"—!" Rin glowered at that, turned her head back to where the trucks were and glared, Shirou looked at her with concern in his eyes. Rin then sigh, recomposed herself and looked up with a determine look on her features. "Then Emiya-kun and I will get close and get whatever information they got."

"Wait, what?" Archer asked sharply as his casual stance became rigid in disagreement.

"Tohsaka that's—!" Shirou exclaimed at the same as the Servant, though he stopped as the two males looked at each other, then glared at each other and growled in annoyance.

"Emiya-kun, we need to find any information we can about what those guys want, who they are and how they managed to make so much preparation for the war like this. So we'll have to risk it a little bit if we want to get any answer…this is nothing but equivalent exchange, a magus should be prepare for this type of situation." Rin explained as she ignored the tension that had built up between her current ally and her Servant. She stood up and made to jump over the entrance wall of the warehouse area.

"Rin this is stupid, going there will get you capture immediately…especially with this idiot here." Archer explained ruthlessly as he tried to convinced his Master to not follow her plan, he made sure to insult the copper hair boy there.

"Who are you calling idiot, idiot!" Shirou snapped, any control over his lips lost as his irritation at the red Servant reached its boiling point. The red Servant found the way the boy had talked back annoyed him further.

"You of course, I don't see any other idiots here."

"Well no one asked for your opinion here."

"Humph, of course, an idiot that doesn't have retort how surprising."

"Why you—!"

"Enough!" Rin ordered, her tone annoyed. "Frankly speaking the only idiots I'm seeing are the two morons in front of me, so knock it off and do something useful or else I'll be going by myself and the two of you will wait for me!"

"Tsk—!" Archer turned his attention away from Shirou at the words his Master had said. He looked at the girl, his expression serious. "Rin, this is not a very smart idea and you know—!"

"Stop it Archer, I'll be going and you're not stopping me because this is our chance for a counter attack Archer…we finally can move on the offensive. So go and get ready Archer, find a perched and be ready to fire in case something goes wrong…like always…" Rin muttered to herself the last bit. She then turned towards Shirou who had looked back to where their enemies were. "Let's not waste time, Emiya-kun."

Shirou looked back towards Rin and nodded. Arche shook his head in disagreement at the situation, teeth clenched as he watched Rin jumped over the entrance of the warehouse.

Shirou made to follow her but a steel like gripped on his arm stopped him, the boy winced as he almost felt his arm be ripped off when tried to shake it off, he looked back and saw the red Servant who looked at him with cold eyes. The copper hair boy gritted his teeth at the stare, though he did not wither or panicked at those steel eyes.

"Emiya Shirou, you are a nuisance and a hindrance. So you better not screw around or get Rin into trouble…otherwise, you won't have to worry about that ideal of yours, understand?"

Archer's words froze the Shirou in place, any comeback or insult that was at the tip of his tongue disappeared.

' _You won't have to worry about that ideal of yours'_

How did Archer know? How could he have spoken those words with such ease as if he knew what he was talking about? The way Archer looked straight at his eyes, how his lips sneered, the increase in pressure on his arm…there was no denying that Archer hadn't just said that unknowingly.

"Emiya-kun come on! The path's clear!" Rin whispered harshly from the other side of the entrance wall, Shirou turned towards the direction of the voice for a brief second, then sharply turned back towards where Archer was…

But found nothing but empty space. The Servant had already left to find a sniping position, his threat clear. His arm still outstretched from when the Servant in red had grabbed him, the limb throbbed in pain, and his mind was still reeling from the shock.

How did…"

Shirou shook his head, there was no time to thinks of what Archer had said now. There was more important thing to worry about, no, not things…definitely not a thing.

Sakura Matou, the girl that had come to his life and formed part of his little family.

It was that thought that had filled Shirou full of determination, with that he jumped over the entrance wall, landed beside Rin and looked at her with fire on his eyes. The girl noticed the look, nodded at him and advanced forward.

They crouched walked towards some wooden boxes near the trucks, they sneaked in a peak to see the enemies position. They were a few feet away from the trucks and their enemies, far away not to be seen if they were careful. The two looked around to see if they could find a hole in their enemy's security.

Down by the trucks, suited mages mixed in with a couple of the armor mages lingered about and talked among themselves. Up on the roof of the ware house were two armored mages, they looked below and walked away to check the other corners of the building.

The two young Masters noticed that the security was rather laxed, not many paid much attention about the possibility of an intruder. In fact, the mages looked tired, some sported bruises and cuts, evidence of the confrontation that Archer had sported earlier on the morning.

"Emiya-kun, this is the best chance we got, they're tire, injured and just about ready to go wherever is that they go and rest up…there must be a hole in their defense that we can abuse…" Rin looked around as she said this behind the box.

Shirou had already been trying to find an opening, he turned towards his right where the large containers were stacked near the building. Shirou noticed that in between the containers and the building there was a small opened space that would let the two teenagers fit through and hide in there. They could eavesdrop the conversation from that place. The problem was getting there.

Fortunately, there were more wooden boxes sprayed around that were close to the truck near the containers. With those around the two Masters could jumped from cover to cover and make it to their hiding spot.

"Tohsaka, through there?" Shirou whispered and pointed at the spot he had found. Rin followed his gaze, analyzed the area, hummed and nodded.

"Nice find and even better, those guys don't seem to be paying any attention…even the ones in roof aren't there right now…but we still have to move fast, so…ready?"

"Ready."

"Then…let's go!"

The two-moved fast, hid behind cover, sneaked in a peak and jumped to the next cover. The two repeated this action until they finally made it to the truck closest to the containers. They breathed in heavily in exhilaration and looked at each other, they nodded, disbelieve that they made it without being caught.

Then Rin's head snapped up, a sign that Archer had just informed her of something, a fright look appeared on her features. Before Shirou had time to even formulate a question over the occurrence, Rin grabbed him, both her arms around his torso, pulled down and rolled them underneath the truck.

Shirou nearly let out a yelp over the sudden action but held it in, since he knew this could spell trouble. He stiffened when Rin's lip touched his ear and hot breath tickled his skin.

"The guys on the roof jumped down on the containers to look around, we have to be careful when we get in between the building and those things." Rin warned and looked back towards where the containers were, she missed the red face Shirou entirely. A few minutes passed with their bodies press together and then Rin let go off him and rolled out from beneath the truck. She motioned him to follow her.

Shirou sighed at all the awkward moments that had been occurring, still, he followed after her. A box was their final obstacle and they passed over it carefully to try and not attract any attention. Finally, the two dropped down the ground, their backs against the warehouse wall and knees against their chest. There wasn't much space between the building and containers, so it was cramp and uncomfortable.

Rin looked at Shirou and gave him a look of amazement.

"We made it…we actually did it without getting caught…!" She whispered in relieve.

Shirou nodded and let out a shaky breath, he himself was surprised as well. He hadn't thought that they would make it. Everything had gone to well, far too well.

"How…?"

"Huh?"

"How haven't we been discovered? I mean, these guys managed to fight against Archer and Saber…and they haven't discovered us?"

"Emiya-kun, remember that these guys were fighting against not one but two Servants…probably, I don't know…but the point is th—" Rin cut herself off, narrowed her eyes in concentration. Then the girl's eyes widened in fright and shock, she started to look around hysterically. Shirou grew worry at the action.

"Tohsaka…Tohsaka, what's wrong are we going to ge—!" A slender finger silence him as it was placed on his lips, Shirou crossed eyes as he looked down at the appendage.

"Shh, wait Emiya-kun…" Rin hush as she closed her eyes and concentrated, a moment passed and she looked back at the copper hair boy with a victorious smile. "These guys really are stupid jerks…"

"What do you mean?"

"There's no Boundary Field here…they haven't placed any security here…! They're overconfident. They probably thought that no one would come after them. Even after the flashy fight against whatever Servant they were fighting…they assumed that no one would come after them, either because they did not wish confrontation or because they had instilled their power to whoever they have fought!" Rin whispered with a smile, Shirou nodded in understanding. "And those thoughts will be their undoing."

"Okay then, let's listen in and get out as quick as possible." Shirou stated as he motioned for the window a few paces away. Rin nodded beside him and crouched walked towards it with the boy behind her.

"Smart choice of words." The girl stated as she, knelt and carefully looked through the window. Shirou copied her actions and saw the scene play before him.

 **.**

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 **.**

"—nd you fail to secure the Master of Saber even though, from what has been reported to me, he was without his Servant and was nothing more than third-rate magus, if you could even call that boy that." The Lieutenant spoke with distaste through those sneering lips. "Is this report correct, Matou Shinji?"

Shinji Matou shivered on the chair he sat at, right there in the middle of the empty warehouse, with barely any light on the darken building. The blue hair boy only cloth was some the black trousers that looked stretched and barely fit his slim waist. The winced, cheek swollen and purple, his expression was one of frustration and fear, the occasional cringe in pain clear as he trembled, sweat poured down his swollen face.

Around the two, were six mages, both armored and suited watched the scene with cold eyes and rigid postures.

"…" The blue hair boy didn't answer, only the frightful gasps and hissed were heard. The Lieutenant sighed at the behavior, his patience and tolerance were non-existent at the moment.

"Answer boy!"

"Y-Yes—! Yes okay! But I would've caught that idiot if it hadn't been for all these goddamn morons interfering! So if you're going to blame someone, how about blaming thos—!" Shinji went into a loud tirade, but immediately shut his mouth when the man before him stomped his armored foot down loudly. The clang echoed around the darken room.

"That is enough out you boy! I am not here to hear about your complaints. Simply put, I am here to get a full assessment of the situation…and what I have learn is that wasting my time on you was a major mistake."

"…!" The look of maniacal anger that spread through Shinji's face was something to behold. Yet the man ignored it completely.

"Though it is not surprising. Many others, hundreds to be exact, have gone through this very trial and most have fail to meet our expectations." The man with the cape stated, his tone cold and hard. "But I must admit, that I am indeed disappointed, I had vouched for you, truly believing that you would prove your worth. After all you belong to that line, to the Matou's…or has they used to go as, the Makiri."

"H-Huh…? How do yo—?" Shinji's angered dissipated at those words, astonishment and confusion reign supreme as he stared at the man before him. Though, the boy's words were ignored like before.

"It is saddening to see the Makiri lineage decline so low, truly it is…" The 'lieutenant said with disappointment and shake of his head. "And I had truly hoped to see you at the very least among our rank...since your sister cannot carry on this work…no, she another duty to fulfil."

"…what?" Shinji's confusion at the statement was noticeable, the Lieutenant finally payed attention to the boy and released an annoyed breath.

"Your sister will work as a backup plan of course, what she possesses is something that you could not hope to understand…" The man stopped, his posture became rigid, then relaxed. He had noticed that he had revealed information that didn't need to be told. "But enough about that, let us return back to you boy, and what we will do with you."

The Lieutenant's word had the desire effect as whatever curiosity Shinji had shown disappeared.

"…y-y-you're going to k-k-kill me…!?"

"I would, of course I would! The fact that you proved yourself worthless to our cause, no the very fact that you are a failure to the Makiri lineage…it makes my blood boil in shame!" The Lieutenant exclaimed, his voice strong and firm as he stated the reason for why the boy would die.

"…!" Shinji went still and completely pale at those words, his eyes stared up at the man, they trembled and watered at the words. A manic shine appeared on them.

"But…the director is the kind of woman who does not appreciate the act of killing…in fact, she has forbidden us to do so, unless the situation is of extreme circumstances of course. And this, well, it's not of extreme circumstances." The man said as his tone became more subdue and calm.

"…" Shinji's body slump down on the chair as he let out a shaky breath. The Lieutenant turned away from the boy.

"Anyway, in this instances we would wiped your mind and make you forget all of this, but our colleague isn't here right now…even though I'm sure he is aware of what is occurring, that annoying half-breed isn't here to make sure that the mind wipe goes smoothly as he has done with the other mages who have failed to join us, wiping the mind of a grown magus can be quite the hassle…" The Lieutenant explained and then turned his head towards Shinji. "…though with you, it wouldn't matter much, now would it? A boy with no hope to become a mage is completely vulnerable to any one of us, if we oh so wish, we could have wiped your memories of the last few days at any time."

Something snapped in Shinji, the demeaning words, the oh so casual attitude that they had taken with him…the feeling of humiliation, the feeling of being treated as nothing but trash...they had reached their limit.

"I'll kill you…I'll kill you…" Shinji repeated, his face tilted up to glared at the hooded man before him. The voice words held venom in them, lethal enough that even the Lieutenant had to turned towards him and give his full attention.

"Oh? And how do plan to do that? With that Servant of 'yours', Rider?" The man asked, his words mocking, but the tone was nothing but dead serious.

"Y-Yes, she'll come for me! I'm her Master, I'm the one in control!" Shinki exclaimed, anger clear on his voice, yet the stammer at the beginning showed off weakness as he was caught off-guard by the confidence in which the Lieutenant spoke. "And when I get out of here you wi—!"

"—will be nothing." The man before Shinji coolly interrupted, he took a step forward. "Your control over the Servant is lost. The book that allowed you to control her burned and she has abandoned you. And anyway, Rider has been successfully capture, your sister as well."

"…" Shinji's anger once more disappeared and he sunk down, a look of disbelief clear on his face.

"Hmm, I didn't mention that, did I…? It is fine, though, Rider did become quite problematic, when my people were escorting the young Sakura, the Servant ambushed them. Fortunately for us, Servant Saber had weakened Rider enough to be subdue and convinced not to fight in promise of the security of her Master…her true Master."

"Ughk…"

"Hmm, truly boy, calm down, there is no need for you to be acting like such a pampered brat. Anyway, your sister is with us for the time being…she will be return home once we're finished with the ritual."

"Ritual…?" Shinji asked, absentmindedly as he was still reeling from the revelation that he had no means to exact his revenge.

"Nothing for you to worry about, now carry along boy, off you go." With those words the Lieutenant motioned for one of the armor mages to opened the warehouse door, a woman answered the call.

Shinji looked up, shocked at the words.

"What…your letting me go!?"

"Of course, there is nothing for you to do here. So now go boy, we have business to attend."

"A-A-A-Are you an idiot!? I'll tell everyone about you! Tell the other Masters! I'll—!"

"Quiet saddening indeed, to see the Makiri line be reduced to this…humph, it doesn't matter whether you tell them or not, our operation had already commenced and we are far too deep in things to care about you telling things to others. We already have the entire Mage society as our enemy…and soon we'll have even more."

"…"

"Anyway, it isn't as if you have anything useful tell…what? You'll tell them how the suit we provided you makes you stronger? Please boy, the Masters and Servants we have fought can already know this. That's just useless information you will give…now off you go boy, I will not repeat myself again." With that the Lieutenant turned his back on Shinji and walked towards a group of white suited men and women of to the side.

Shinji stood from his seat shakily, his body shook in rage…but in the end, he walked out of the warehouse in defeat, his hand held up the trouser so they didn't slip from his body.

No one paid any mind to him as he exited the building. The woman closed the door and let out a sigh in relief.

"Good grief, about time he left…" The woman said as she walked towards where the Lieutenant was. The man waved her off and looked towards the woman in a suit beside him.

"Enough…are the preparations ready?"

"Yes Lieutenant, whenever the Director decides to commence the operation, there won't be any complications."

"Hmm, that's good, then the meeting for the official start of our mission shall be here on the harbor then like it was stated in the past, correct?" Lieutenant asked as he moved to get out of the warehouse, he rolled his neck as he felt his body cramp over the restless few days.

"No sir, the meeting shall be done underneath the Big Bridged at midnight tonight." The woman corrected, this made the cape wearing mage stop and turned around in surprised.

"What—!? Why wasn't I told any of this earlier!?" The Liuetenant demanded angrily as he marched back to the woman in the suit. Said woman looked up undeterred by the outburst.

"The Director is displeased with you beginning the offence without her approval and your straightforwardness as caused more complication than what she had foreseen. She was angry with you and too busy making sure to fix the situation you made here on Fuyuki. The operation in London had to be completed in haste in order to make it here. She has been in the city for a couple of days now."

"W-What—!? Since when? How is it that I—!"

"Lieutenant, you didn't know because the Director didn't want anyone to know she had arrived here…like I said, she was correcting mistakes and the loss of personnel because of your rash decisions against the Servants Caster, Archer, Lancer and Saber. And the, how you called it, foolish deal you struck with the Matou boy nearly cause the death of our members and the reveal of the identity of our own Servant. The fact that we managed to get Assassin and restraint Rider without any trouble is nothing but a miracle…"

"Tsk…I don't see why a lousy secretary is talking like that to a superior…"

"Direct orders from my superiors of course." The woman said smugly as she smirked at the Lieutenant. "Tonight, at the meeting the Director will give you quite the earful in front of everybody."

"Damn it…I only did what I thought was correct at the moment…no wonder why that half-breed looked so smug…"

"…is it wise to insult him? Especially when you know he is—!"

"Stop, there's no need to remind me…there is nothing I can do without that bastard completely mocking me at every turn and making me look like an utter fool at all moments! And now this…damn it, find, I will face the Directors punishment head on."

With that the Lieutenant turned and walked towards the door to get out. The other suited personal followed behind, some with smirks on their lips.

 **.**

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Rin and Shirou separated themselves from the window quickly when they heard heavy footsteps at the top of the container in front of them. The two lowered their bodies, pressed together, and hoped that whoever was up there didn't look down.

The armor mage at top didn't, fortunately for them, as they saw the two mages from earlier jumped down and walked towards the trucks.

Shirou and Rin stayed liked that for several minutes, as they heard the trucks engines roar to life and take off. One by they left until there was nothing but silence and a feeling of ease.

A few minutes passed, and felt fully safe in the area they were in.

Rin stood up slowly, walked carefully out the small space that the two had hidden to eavesdropped, looked around and sighed in relief. She then turned towards Shirou, a serious look on her face.

"Emiya-kun…"

"Sakura is with them…and she was a Master?"

"I didn't think that she would've been chosen as Riders Master…but I guess it make sense…"

"Tohsaka…?"

"Listen, the situation just changed…you heard them…they listed every Servant that they have fought and how they categorized their own Servant…"

"The only one they didn't mention was Berserker…" Shirou trailed off as he walked towards Rin, a troubled look on his face.

"But we already fought against that monster…so it doesn't make any sense! That Servant we fought in the sewers fought like a Caster! And…and…now you're telling me that we assumed wrong!? That there's apparently an eight Servant around!"

"Enough Rin." Archer's word filtered in and made Rin and Shirou jumped in surprise as the Servant appeared behind the girl.

"Archer!" Rin exclaimed, the Servant crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

"This is no time to waste with you feeling sorry for yourself. You have a location and the target you were trying to find will finally show her face." Archer stated. "All that's left for you to do is go in and fetch as much information as possible to really go into the offence…just make sure to have a plan ready instead of relying in dumb luck."

"Tsk…shut you. I already know all this, I'm just…" Rin trailed off as she gritted her teeth, deep in thought.

"Tohsaka." Shirou called out, he placed a hand on the girl's shoulders.

"Huh?"

"Let's go to my house and regroup, there's not much point in staying here."

"…" Rin didn't respond as she mulled over the words. A minute passed and she sighed in frustration, but nodded in agreement all the same. "Your right, it's better to get back and make sure if Saber has woken up…she could be our trump card if things goes badly."

"Yeah."

"Then let's go and get ready."

* * *

 **Author Notes**

 **Hey there, it's been a while! So, I decided to take a small break from this story and concentrate on my other story Zero's Golden Sail. Unfortunately I underestimated just how much time I had for my vacation and well...college had been a cruel mistress this semester. Anyway here's the new chapter, I hope you enjoy, because I really want to get the story past the first arc.**

 **So please review, I'd like to hear your thoughts.**


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